Written in Code
by Once Was AHR
Summary: Naruto and Hinata left the village sixteen years ago. What happens when their thirteen year old daughter, Nara Uzumaki, returns? The question is simple. The answer is written in code.
1. Prologue

**This is a Next Generation Fan fiction written by me, and a friend of mine. It will be mostly OC based, but there will be plenty of mentions to canon characters and such. The main couple is NaruHina, but there will also be plenty of ShikaTema coming up. This is planned on being a long running series, and the first chapter is the prologue. Enjoy. **

_The bodies of Kakashi and Sasuke lay adjacent from one another. They were horribly mangled, but more importantly, dead. A single figure stood over them. He was a nondescript sort of person except for his cloak, which was covered in red clouds and his two eyes, which held the Mangekyou Sharingan._

The cold air rushed past her as she ran, frantically, she ran. She had to get away. She had to get far away, or she would be caught, and killed.

"_It was Itachi who did this!" Naruto roared. Sakura watched helplessly as her teammate destroyed his living quarters. Naruto hadn't slept for a couple days now, he had just spent all his time ranting and raving about the deaths of Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun._

"_I'm going to kill that bastard." He hissed under his breath, not for the first time._

"_But Naruto…" Sakura began_

"_What?" He asked bluntly, not hiding the rage from his voice, his eyes turning momentarily red._

"_Itachi is dead, he's been dead for three years now."_

She couldn't afford to pause for even a second. Her eyes were heavy from lack of sleep, but it didn't matter. Itachi was a master tracker, if she stopped, he would find her. She kept on running, paying no attention to where she ran, as long as it was far away from that monster.

"_I know what I saw Tsunade-baachan!" Naruto cried out._

_Tsunade gave a sigh. "Naruto, the deaths were tragic, but it couldn't have been Itachi. His innocence was proven shortly after his death. He wouldn't have killed two Konoha shinobi even if he was alive." She said calmly._

_Naruto widened his eyes in disbelief. How could she take this so lightly? How could she take his eye witness as simply a misconception? He knew what he saw, and he had seen Itachi kill two of the closest members in his family._

_Itachi had threatened his family, he was alive, and Naruto would find him._

Perhaps if she had been awake, she would have noticed it slowly got colder. The arid air of the Wind was no longer present, and the air became cooler, and the ground became greener. Any other day she would have taken this as an omen and turned around. But not today, she couldn't today.

_Naruto stared in disbelief as piles of massacred genin and acadamy students were piled on top of each other. Even some chuunin were in the gruesome scene. On the wall, written in blood, the message scrawled:_

_**Naruto, you're my target, but you'll be the last victim**_

_Naruto felt his blood freeze, this…this was his entire fault; Itachi was killing all of these innocent people, because of him. Even though he had spent days tracking this ninja, he hadn't arrived in time to stop this. This event had taken about half a minute. _

_He had to get away. Leave Konoha. As the sickening truth radiated throughout his body, Naruto felt a lump in his throat. His home, his village, where he would eventually become Hokage- now it was all impossible._

_Without another word he turned around, and left Konoha. Forever._

It was night now. She must have run throughout the entire day. Lack of sleep, and fatigue took over her. She had to rest, or she would end up killing herself. As if by instinct, her body leaned against a tree, and she sat down. She struggled to open her bag. She had soldier pills that could rejuvenate her- but she was too tired to make enough of an effort. Her eyes closed, and all she saw was darkness.

_Naruto was sprawled across the ground, gasping for breath. He was surrounded by enemy ninja. Any of them by themselves he could have easily beaten. He could have beaten ten of them without breaking a sweat, but an army of 85 stone shinobi was simply too much. Even his demon chakra had been spent._

_He had only been gone a little less than a week, and he was already dead. A fine ending for a shinobi of the leaf. Why…?_

_All of a sudden, the ninja started to fall, and the remaining stone shinobi were killed. Naruto forced himself up to catch a glimpse of his savior;_

_It was Hinata Hyuuga._

Nara Uzumaki slept peacefully. She had been running from Itachi for her entire life of thirteen years. She could afford a quick rest.

Little did Nara know that a mile or so away, lay the very same village that Nara had tried so hard to avoid. Konohagakure. The Village Hidden in the Leaves. All her life, Nara had been taught to never go near the village. At least, not until Itachi was dead. But Itachi had never died, so she had never gone near the village.

If Nara had known where she was, she would have forced herself up, and ran for a couple more miles, but she didn't know.

Unfortunately, the pleasant state of ignorance would not last.

_It had been a year after Naruto left that it happened. A massive amount of foreign shinobi gathered around the walls of Konoha. Some were only children, and others were probably older then Tsunade. But they all had one thing in common._

_They all carried the fan, also known as the Uchiwa on their backs. Better known as the symbol of the Uchiha clan._

_A single representative was allowed an audience with Tsunade._

_His name was Hakaru Uchiha. Leader of the Uchiha clan. He explained his story:_

_Long before Madara Uchiha was even born, a group of Uchihas had splintered off, for they were not interested in fighting. They lived peacefully way up north. Unfortunately, a price had to be paid. Since that time, not a single member had been born with the Sharingan. They had lived largely as simply a clan with fire based jutsus. Unfortunately, rumors of missing-nin coming from the Uchihas spread like wildfire, and they were soon hunted down by mobs. Their last hope was to follow their long forgotten ancestors footsteps, and make their home at Konohagakure._

_Tsunade listened quietly to the story. She gave no evidence of surprise or astonishment. Afterwards, she gave a nod. "Very well"_

_Haraku looked at her hopefully as she talked. If Konohagakure did not accept them, then they would have nowhere else to go._

"_You may join Konoha as part of the village."_

It's been sixteen years since Naruto left

It's been fifteen years since the Uchiha clan was reinstated in the ranks of Konoha.

It's been thirteen years since the child of Naruto and Hinata, Nara, was born

It's been three years since Naruto and Hinata have died.

**Yes Naruto and Hinata are really dead. Sorry to disappoint, but don't worry, there will be plenty of mentioning's about them. We hope you enjoyed the prologue, and we now ask you to be so kind as to review… Please?**


	2. A Chance Encounter

**Thanks to Marjolein222 and Rowena DeVandal for reviewing the first chapter! We now present chapter two!**

The ninja acadamy had let out for the day, and the many eager students rushed out for many various reasons. One group in particular comprised mostly of twelve and thirteen year olds, headed directly for the surrounding forests.

In a couple of months, they would graduate the acadamy and go on to being fully fledged shinobi. What better way to get ready for the upcoming exams, then ninja games?

Long gone were the days whefre 'ninja' was comprised of tag with cardboard kunais and shurikens. True, the kunais and shurikens were still cardboard, but the game had evolved into something much more complex. It resembled a game known as 'Capture the Flag'.

Divided up into two teams, each team had a 'Hokage' (which was usually a log with a hat on it) that they would have to protect from the opposing team. All it took was a single 'stab' of a cardboard kunai, and the Hokage would die, and the opposing team would win.

Most of the game was comprised of attacking each other. One tap of the kunai and you would be out. There would of course, be cheaters, but the game was usually played with a sense of honor. After all, they were supposed to be shinobi.

There were two captains. On one side was Reniko Nara. He had black hair, which was usually pulled up in a ponytail. He wore a black netted shirt, and a black sash on his arm that sported an 'I' shaped symbol. At his waist were two small fans. He rarely, if ever took them out, so there purpose was largely unknown.

The other captain was Mitsu Gyaro. Originating from a clan that specialized in herbs and the like, Mitsu was extremely tall and had dull red hair. He was missing an eye, for reasons unknown, and was a year older than everyone else. He wore a vest strictly designed for the Gyaro clan, and an odd green tattoo on his left arm.

At the moment, a large 'battle' was taking place. Since most only knew the basic jutsus, the game largely comprised of elaborately dodging and attempting sneak attacks. Renikos' team appeared to be winning. With only three out, and nine out on the other side, it wasn't long until sheer numbers gave them victory.

However, the tables quickly turned against them. A small girl was in a distant tree. She had dull pink hair and a blue and orange jacket. Her eyes were a dark purple. She threw a cardboard kunai clumsily. She had no intention of hitting anyone. All she wanted was to get their attention.

It worked, most of the acadamy students turned in anger to see who had thrown at them. Only to widen their eyes in anger and curse under their breaths.

None of them could move. It was as if something had forced their legs to stay rooted on the spot. The girl calmly jumped down, and grabbed her cardboard kunai, and jabbed all of the members on Renikos' team lightly in the shoulder. She grinned foolishly. "I win" She said happily.

"HOLD IT!!" A voice a bit back roared. Reniko stepped out, brimming in anger. "What the hell Haruna? That is no fair!" He roared, refraining the urge to tackle her.

Haruna, narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "I didn't break any rules, your just mad that you lost to a girl!"

Reniko scoffed at that. "Look runt, we get that you have an oh-so-great kekkai genkai, but that's no reason to ruin it for the rest of us!" He hissed at her threateningly.

"It's not _my _fault that they don't have any special jutsus. You don't get mad if someone is a better aim than you. Why should you get mad at this?" Haruna retorted motioning to the students she had just got out.

Reniko rolled his eyes. "You don't see Sarunte spurting off fireballs just because he can. You don't see Mitsu poisoning anyone just because he can! You don't see Koru going after all the idiots afraid of bugs!"

A team member from Mitsus' team stepped forward. "Haruna" He said "Reniko is right."

Reniko smirked at the added reinforcement from the opposing team. "Ya see! Now play fair or go away!"

There was a general grumble of agreement, especially among those who had just got out. Even those who were on Mitsus' team were nodding in agreement.

"Fine" Haruna said huffily. "I'll leave," before stomping away from the game. Eventually her figure was obscured by the many branches and foliage. There was an awkward silence. Finally one of the members from Renikos' team who had been tagged by her spoke up.

"So…are we still out?"

**x.X.B.R.E.A.K.X.x**

"Stupid Reniko" Haruna muttered to herself. "Stupid game, stupid team, stupid EVERYTHING"

Haruna was from the Cataki clan which hosted an eye related kekkai genkai known as the Zajigan. Its purposes largely resembled that of the now extinct Mangyekou Sharingan. It used a form of hypnosis that if trained right, could stop armies.

Of course, Haruna was not fully trained in the Zajigan. She was talented enough to be graduating at age nine, but she was by no means a master of her ability. Her best abilities with the Zajigan, was that she was able to put people to sleep, or stop them in their tracks in a weaker form. She could also create some basic illusions. These illusions were a bit tougher to handle then normal genjutsu, but Haruna was only able to create small illusions successfully. Mostly involving faking actual jutsus.

Haruna was not much of a people person. She had next to no friends, since almost all of her classmates were taller than her by a foot. Some, like Reniko and his friend Sarunte, had it out for her. She didn't know why, but for some reason, they tried to make her life miserable. Others like Mitsu, treated her like an acquaintance, which was just fine by her.

All that mattered was in six months, she would be a genin. There, no one could get mad if she used her Zajigan. She would be able to beat all of them easily, without even breaking a sweat. Then, then they would be sorry. They would be sorry when she became a chuunin on her first try. They would be sorry when she became a Jounin at an age where most of them hadn't even graduated.

They would all be sorry. Eventually.

Haruna paused in confusion when she realized she had been walking for the past couple of minutes in the wrong way. She sighed and realized she would have to turn around and most likely run into Reniko again, who would waste no time in jeering at her lack of direction.

She was about to turn around, when something caught her eye. A fray of orange clothe seemed to be behind a tree. Haruna carefully walked up to it. 'It' was actually a human.

The human was dressed in a dark orange jacket with dark orange pants. The hood covered most of this persons face, but Haruna could see some strands of blonde hair. This human appeared to be female, judging by the bottom half of her face.

She seemed to have a bag at her side with the Konoha symbol embroidered on it. Haruna frowned at that. What would a random human (most likely an enemy shinobi) be doing with a Konoha symbol? Haruna knelt down and opened the bag carefully.

In it, were many more small bags, revealing marble like spheres. Haruna didn't touch them, worried that they might be smoke bombs. There was a journal with illegible words scrawled within it. Most likely code. Then she saw something that really shocked her.

Two Konoha headbands. They were old and rusty, and the cloth was ripped and frayed, but Haruna easily recognized the symbol that was on the metal.

She gulped slightly. Haruna got up. She was about to get help, when a thought came to her. What if, this person woke up while she was gone? Haruna couldn't leave the human alone. Who was to say she would even be able to find this place again?

With a sigh, Haruna lifted the girl up by the shoulders. She wasn't as heavy as Haruna anticipated, but the nine year old still had a tough time carrying the body.

In the end, she resorted to dragging her, trying to make sure that the girl did not go over any bumps, or anything else that would cause enough shock to wake her up.

It had been over ten minutes, and Haruna was tired. She had only just reached the area where everyone had been playing ninja. At this rate, the girl would wake up long before she made it to a chuunin who would know what to do.

"What are you doing?" a voice asked.

Haruna flinched a bit. The girl was still asleep. It had not come from her. The voice had come from another kunoichi who was a couple feet away.

"Koru!" Haruna whispered under her breath.

Koru Aburame had brown wavy hair that reached her shoulders. She wore black sunglasses, and a rather high collared yellow jacket that reached her nose. She wore plaid skirt like shorts and grey capris underneath.

"Shall I repeat the question?" Koru asked simply.

Haruna was about to say she didn't need any help and she was just fine on her own, but she held her tongue and nodded. Koru headed towards them, and grabbed the legs of the girl.

Within five minutes, they had reached a more rural setting. They alerted the first chuunin they saw, who took the girl and disappeared. Haruna and Koru exchanged some quick 'good byes' and headed to their respectful housing areas.

**x.X.B.R.E.A.K.X.x**

Nara Uzumaki woke up in a warm soft bed in Konoha Hospital. Without even opening her eyes, she knew something was wrong. Wrenching open her eyes, Nara looked around in astonishment. Where was she? Certainly not with Itachi...Right?

Her eyes widened as she looked briefly out the window. The faces of the past Hokages stared back at her. No…it couldn't be…not here… not Konoha…

Without a second thought she leaped out of the bed and headed straight for the door, ready to take down anyone who stood in her. Hopefully she wouldn't have to hurt anyone. She activated her byakugan as she ran. It gave her a 360 view around her.

Her escape was cut short as approximately fifty needles came flying at her. She turned around, ready to use Gentle fist to stop them. Ten stopped…five more…six more… fourteen… seven...eight… no wait! Only seven. One needle made a clean break through and jabbed her in the neck.

It luckily, and not hit a vital point, but Nara could feel herself getting drowsy. She fumbled for the needle and tried to tug it out, but her body went limp, and darkness surrounded her.

Shizune stood in front of the body. She had dipped her needles with a sleeping drug. She wouldn't be waking up for an hour or so. "Take her back to her room." She told one of the nurses.

"And for heaven's sake, get a body guard!" She cried out as the nurses lifted Nara gently.

Shizune sighed. It had been a lucky thing that she had been called in for an operation, or the girl could have gotten farther away before she was caught.

She headed towards the room where the girl had been put and grabbed one of the nurses. "Alert us immediately when she wakes." Shizune said calmly.

The nurse nodded timidly. Shizune sighed. This was going to cause a lot of paperwork. A girl with the Byakugan? The Hyuugas would be in a jumble. And of course, Tsunade-sama would have to hear about this.

Shizune groaned as she headed for the Hokages office. This was not going to end well…

**End of chapter two! Now we command ye to review!**


	3. Deductions

**I present to you, chapter three! It's a bit short, sorry about that. Many thanks to KameLt (Itachi is awesome isn't he?) JoshRand1982, Kyuunichan, Marjolein222 and Jeannie Foley for reviewing. And thanks to the many people who put this on their update alerts. (Review you silent readers!!) Once again, sorry for it being short, and without further procrastination, you may read away!**

It was another hour until Nara was finally able to wake up. This time, Nara was quick to realize she had very little chakra left.

"Don't struggle, why? Because I could easily suck your very life force" came a quiet but commanding voice from across the room.

Nara whipped her head towards the voice in surprise. The culprit was clearly an ANBU. He wore a mask with the face of an ant on it, and he had visible spiky brown hair. However, those were the only distinguishing features about him.

"Go ahead, see if I care" Nara audibly hissed at the mysterious shinobi.

The ANBU raised a single hand, and immediately, bugs swarmed out of his sleeve and practically swarmed Nara. Not one touched her, but none of them were more than an inch away from her.

Nara fought the urge to gasp in surprise. She took a deep breath to calm herself and looked at the ANBU evenly.

"You're from the Aburame clan aren't you?" She asked coolly.

The ANBU gave no motion of agreement or disagreement. He merely withdrew his hand and returned it to his side. The bugs however, lingered.

"So…are you just going to stare at me or say something?" Nara questioned a bit nervous. She began to reach for her right side. "Because, if not, I'm going to leave."

Nara suddenly realized she was not wearing her orange jacket, but instead a hospital dress. Her bag, which she carried with her everywhere, was not in her presence either.

"_Where_ is my bag?" She asked her tone suddenly harsh and angry.

The ANBU said nothing, but merely folded his arms.

"Where is it?" She cried out, her voice rising. "I've got important things in there!!" _And potentially dangerous_ she added silently to herself.

Silence. Complete silence, except for the buzzing wings of the various bugs.

"Where is my bag? Why won't you answer me? … Never mind, I'm leaving" Nara finally said, pushing away the covers of the hospital bed.

The bugs swarmed her as Nara struggled to get up. They forced her back in the bed.

Nara stared at the Aburame, partly in shock that bugs could be so strong, but mostly angry that she was practically clueless.

"What am I doing here anyway?" She spat at him angrily. "You could at least give me some answers!"

"Funny" Came a voice from the doorway. "I was going to ask the same thing."

The voice belonged to none other than the fifth Hokage, Lady Tsunade. Tsunade had not visibly aged since Naruto had left the village. However, there were signs she had aged. She had mellowed out slightly, (although it was still a bad idea to mention paperwork) and her jutsus took slightly more effort than it used to.

However, Tsunade had maintained her position of Hokage successfully, even outliving Danzo, and the two advisors by ten years.

Tsunade looked at the strange girl from across the room.

Her blonde hair was messily parted into two long pigtails. Her eyes were light lavender, obviously the Byakugan. She had three slanted whisker like lines on each side of her face. She was also skinny but quite tan. It was evident she had a muscular build, that was in most shinobi, since from an early age they had physically trained their bodies.

Nara gave a mournful smile. "Answers? Try falling asleep in one place, and waking up in another, a prisoner."

Tsunade cocked an eyebrow, and motioned for the ANBU to leave the room.

The buzzing noise ceased, and Nara was alone with the fifth Hokage.

After a minute or two of silence and staring at each other a bit awkwardly, Nara decided to ask the first question.

"Why am I here?"

Tsunade sighed. "Because a foreign teenager running around in OUR woods with several leaf symbols on her is just a bit suspicious don't you think?"

Nara narrowed her eyes. "A bunch? I had ONE symbol. On my bag! Speaking of which, where is it?"

"Being tested for dangerous weapons." Tsunade said vaguely, not really caring about the whereabouts of some bag, when a more important matter was at hand.

"Now, what is your name?" Tsunade asked after a pause.

_Lie._ It was that simple. All she would have to do was lie. Her mother and father were from Iwagakure, and they had picked the bag from a random street vendor, and had given it to her for her tenth birthday. They had been traveling to Sunagakure when she had gotten lost, and had been trying to find them.

Yeah, that would work. Then they would have to release her at the risk of getting some villages very angry. After all, they had no idea who she was right?

Right?

**Half an Hour ago**

Tsunade had been in her office, avoiding the paper work, when Shizune had rushed in with a small parcel.

"What is it Shizune? Is it about that girl?" Tsunade had asked curiously, and worriedly at the same time.

Shizune groaned. "Gentle fist. _Gentle fist_! Shes' been taught _Gentle fist_! Granted, it was imperfect, but STILL! The Hyuugas will have a fit!" She cried out frantically.

Tsunade widened her eyes. "Impossible! The only Hyuuga who could have possible been used to discover the secret was…Hinata…" She trailed off uncomfortably.

Shizune nodded. "That's not the worst of it. They found THIS on her." She opened the parcel and two Konoha headbands fell out, followed by a very familiar necklace.

Tsunade trembled slightly as she picked up the green three pronged necklace. "This…this is…This is _my _necklace…"

Shizune nodded again. "Exactly."

Tsunade rubbed her temples and shut her eyes in frustration. "Eyes of a Hyuuga, possessions of Naruto…"

"And the hair. She has blonde hair" Shizune put in.

Tsunade groaned. "We have got a HUGE problem on our hands."


	4. A Bet for Freedom

**Thanks to Emily, Marjolein222 (Nara had the necklace on her, they took it from her), and kemiztri. I apologize for the short chapter, but we had some technical difficulties and the chapter seemed a lot longer on paper. This chapter I can guarantee is a lot longer.**

"And then…well I lost track of my parents, and I was lost for a long time. I'm still trying to find them in fact, if you would be so kind as to let me leave."

Nara had spent a good half hour going into great detail about who she was and her history. But even the most well thought out lies can be contradicted with the truth.

The first piece of evidence brought forward was her kekkai genkai.

"That does not explain how you have Byakugan- which is a Hyuuga clan secret that's guarded so closely not even _I _know how it is done." Tsunade countered, after the long explanation.

Nara cursed in her head. Stupid! She should have transformed the minute she had resumed consciousness. Now it was too late. She had to think of something…

"How…how do you know it's the Byakugan? It could be something totally different!" Nara shot back at Tsunade.

Tsunade smirked at the weak explanation. "Really now? Then what is your pseudo Byakugan _called _then hmmm?" She had the girl trapped. There was no way possible, that she could work her way out of this one. Even if she did think of a name, there was still the fact Shizune had seen her use Gentle Fist.

Nara closed her eyes for a moment, and began to formulate another story. She didn't have much time before it would become quite obvious that it was in fact the Byakugan.

"It's the Shirogan." She said quickly. "The Shirogan can detect elemental bases for each person, and it also boosts chakra control."

Nara inwardly gave a sigh of relief at the idea. Let's see Lady Tsunade work her way out of _that_.

"Really now? Shirogan you say? Then why was it that you were clearly using Gentle fist on your first attempt to escape from the hospital?" Tsunade asked not bothering to hide the amusement in her voice.

Oh crap! She had totally forgotten about that as well! The fifth Hokage had her cornered. What was she going to do now?

"My…my chakra element is wind. That wasn't gentle fist you were seeing, it was wind manipulated to create an almost impenetrable shield." Nara said in a burst of inspiration. She wasn't even sure if her chakra element was wind. But her father's was, so that gave her a fifty percent chance right?

Tsunade had had enough of this elaborate game, so she retrieved the necklace. "Care to explain this then?" The green jewels reflected back the sunlight and created a small, yet dazzling affect.

Naras' eyes flashed red for the briefest second. "Where did you get that?" She asked in a restrained voice. "That's MINE."

Tsunade sighed. This was almost too easy. "Actually, this was a necklace that belonged to the first Hokage. He gave it to his granddaughter, me. I in turn gave it to a very close friend."

She lifted the necklace a bit higher and let it sway back and forth.

"Perhaps you heard of him? Uzumaki, Naruto?"

Nara let out a long sigh of defeat. She pushed together her two pointer fingers out of habit, and she looked down at her knees. Without looking up, she addressed the Hokage. "How much do you know about me?" She paused for a moment. "Tsunade-baachan?"

Tsunade grimaced at the old nickname she had not heard in the longest of times. "So, you accept the fact that you are Narutos daughter then, I take it. No more lying?"

"Yeah…sure" She said half heartedly. There were too many things that she was not planning on telling Tsunade-sama.

"Well then, what's your name, for starters?"

For a second, Nara said nothing. Then she heaved another sigh. "Nara Uzumaki. And yes, my mother is Hinata Hyuuga." She paused for a moment. "And no, the Shirogan does not exist…at least, not to my knowledge."

Tsunade smiled lightly at her. The name was a start. Now it was time to get into the more important details. "Where are your parents Nara?"

"I really don't like to talk about them" Nara said quickly, trying to get around the subject. The last thing she wanted to do was discuss her parents' death to Tsunade-sama.

Tsunade frowned at the evasive answer. It was crucial that they figure out where Naruto and Hinata were. Granted it would start a lot of controversy in the Hyuuga household (with Hanabi being the head of the clan, it would not be an easy thing to suddenly ask her to abdicate for her older sister) and no doubt, the old demon fox propaganda would start up again, but it would be best for them to return.

"Well, it's not a matter of whether you like to or not, we must know where they are."

Nara gave Tsunade a sad look. Her lower lip quivered for a moment, and it seemed as if she might cry. Bu the emotions were quickly and clumsily masked with indifference. "I haven't talked to my parents for years."

Tsunade held up the two rusty head bands. "And you carry these around as mementos of them? Perhaps as a way to comfort you when you miss them?"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Nara suddenly screeched in an outburst of anger. "You don't know anything! Nothing at all!" Her words were broken up by involuntary sobs. "Nothing at all" She repeated, but at barely a whisper this time.

Tsunade was not shaken in the slightest by the irrational emotions of the thirteen year old girl. She just narrowed her eyes and held up the head bands again. "Well then" She said harshly, "Enlighten me."

Nara once again attempted to mask her sadness with indifference, but she couldn't mask her wet face from the crying. "They can't come back. Even if you want them to…even if _they _wanted to" She said stiffly.

Tsunade closed her eyes, and nodded in understanding. "How long have they been dead?" She asked without any trace of sadness.

"Three years."

Three years was a long time for a child to be left alone. "What have you been doing, for that long, all alone?" Tsunade asked in a concerned tone.

"Training, trying to survive, perfecting my skills…I can take care of myself." Nara snapped back at Tsunade. "I'm not a kid."

Tsunade tilted her head back and laughed. "Don't make me laugh. Trying to survive? From what? Vicious squirrels?"

True, there were many enemy ninja in the world, but many would not waste time to attack some random girl. She would get captured and questioned, but even this girl didn't seem stupid enough to walk into enemy territory.

"Try being hunted by some of the highest paid bounty hunters. You'll get a little closer. My bounty is so high; it could pay off _your _debt." Nara said in harsh amusement. She hadn't meant for it to come off funny, but it was true.

Tsunade was not amused. She frowned, and glared at her angrily. "So you're trying to be funny now?"

Nara shook her head slowly. "Not really…"

"And just why would you be hunted? If I remember correctly Naruto was the one with the demon inside of him." Tsunade said in an annoyed voice. This was getting them nowhere.

"Can I go, now that I told you?" Nara asked suddenly. She too was growing frustrated by the seemingly never ending questions.

Tsunade shook her head. "Not a chance. I'm far from being finished. Who would pay bounty hunters to attack you?"

"You didn't believe my father back then, why would you believe me now?" She asked mournfully, looking out of the window absentmindedly.

Tsunade rubbed her temples in aggravation. "Don't shoot around the bush. Just answer the question."

Nara glared at Tsunade spitefully. "Well, according to YOU he's been DEAD longer then I've been alive, so you wouldn't believe me anyway!" So there! She added mentally.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Answer. The. Question." She repeated through gritted teeth. She had never done well with children. Brats. The lot of them. Especially Konohamaru. Even if he wasn't a kid anymore, he certainly still acted like one.

Nara returned her gaze to the window. "What's the point?" She asked in defeat. "You won't believe me." As these last words came out, with a sudden poof! Nara disappeared.

Tsunade groaned. That cheeky little…

Nara quickly leapt out of the window, and hit the ground below her. All she had to do was run for a minute or two and she was home free-

"Where do you think you're going, Nara?" The deep male voice was vaguely familiar. It was the ANBU from before. The bugs swarmed her and made her visible again. Tsunade appeared right besides the ANBU with a small smirk. Nara had used the transparency jutsu. First invented by Jiraiya to spy on girls in the bathhouse. No doubt he had taught Naruto, who, in turn, taught Nara.

"Anywhere but here!" Nara shouted at the Aburame. "Let me go!"

The surround townsfolk only vaguely felt the outburst in their day to day lives. Ninjas, being ninjas, were normal activity around here. Some girl being apprehended by an ANBU, who was with Hokage-same, simply wasn't interesting enough to cause much of a stir.

Nara was gently escorted back to her hospital room, and put back into the hospital bed. The ANBU disappeared without another word, and once again, Tsunade and Nara were alone.

"Don't do that again" Tsunade said pleasantly. "It only makes this longer then it has to be."

"Well we would be over with it right now if you just let me go!" Nara said in a falsely cheery voice.

"Just tell me who paid the bounty hunters." Tsunade said in a strict business voice.

"Among other people who are interested in demon power? Try Uchiha Itachi."

Tsunade learned multiple facts from this statement. One was that Nara did indeed have a demon in her, meaning that the whiskers on her face were not a result of being related to Naruto.

The next thing she learned was that Nara was convinced Itachi was the mastermind. This meant that there was someone using the alias of Itachi, to falsely convince Nara of such an idea.

"Uchiha Itachi has been proven innocent of all accused crimes. He was ordered by the third Hokage and the elders to eliminate those who were planning the coup d'état. Unfortunately, that meant the entire Uchiha clan, except his brother. He was also killed by that very same brother. Who in turn was murdered by another missing-nin." Tsunade said in a bored tone. How many times had she had to explain this to ignorant shinobi?

"Capable of sharingan?" Nara countered. "Unless some of the Uchiha have come back to life…"

Tsunade resisted the urge to contact the head of the clan, Hakaru Uchiha, and tell him to come down here right now, just to give Nara a good scare. Instead, she decided to over ride Naras' first statement.

"There was never any evidence that any of the victims had died of the sharingan. That was a theory that Naruto was convinced in. But there was never any proof." Yet another thing she found herself saying a lot. For a couple of months, when the Uchihas had come back to Konoha, every other death that came along was immediately thought to be via sharingan.

Nara decided not to say anything more about Itachi. It was clear Tsunade-sama was too stubborn about this to see things clearly. Instead she tried her leaving tactic again.

"There, I told you everything, may I go NOW? Unless there was something else you would like me to mention? Blood type? Favorite color? Favorite food? Which is ramen by the way!"

Tsunade said nothing for a moment. It was true; there was little else to ask her. But it was also clear that letting Nara go free was not an option.

"Why must you leave? You could become part of the village, maybe join the acadamy, make friends, have an actual home…" Tsunade trailed off.

"I have a home!" Nara said indignantly. "Somewhere…"

"How about a home where you don't have to worry about being attacked in your sleep?" Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow.

Nara stared at Tsunade in disbelief. "Don't you think it's just a little too late for that?"

Tsunade chuckled. "Well, if you lived in Konoha, you wouldn't have to worry about that now would you?"

"Still don't want to be here." Nara said stubbornly.

"Why? Afraid that our legions of shinobi aren't enough to protect you from some man…who can't even capture a twelve year old girl?" Tsunade said sarcastically.

"I'm thirteen." Nara muttered.

"That's not the point!" Tsunade cried out. "Now answer my question!"

"Don't you think someone would be a _little _apprehensive after spending their ENTIRE life moving around?" Nara said loudly.

Tsunade said nothing, and just stared at her. If worse came to worse, all she would have to do was use the Byakugan card. If Nara refused to stay, and tried to escape, due to her Hyuuga bloodline, she would have to have the cursed seal enforced upon her, thus limiting her movement, since the Hyuugas would most certainly not allow someone carrying their bloodline to run about wily nily. She would mostly like have to stay in captivity for the rest of her life if she proved to be uncooperative.

After a couple more moments of silence Nara couldn't take it anymore. "Think about it" She said, trying another tactic, "I've been on my own for three years! I think I can handle myself."

Tsunade highly doubted it. And she voiced her opinion just so. "I doubt it. I doubt you would last ten seconds in an actual fight."

"I could!" Nara cried out. "Just try me! I bet I could last longer than you ever thought possible!"

Tsunade smiled. "Really now? I bet if you went up against a team of genin…no, three acadamy students, you would lose."

Nara narrowed her eyes at the challenge. "Just try me."

"I will" Tsunade said simply, getting up from the chair she had been sitting in. "You will fight three acadamy students. Win and you leave ,no questions asked, lose, and you'll be staying here in good old Konoha."

Nara frowned. "For how long?"

"How about…until you become a chuunin? I'll even be nice. If you pass the acadamy test but fail the genin test, then I will let you leave as well."

Nara nodded. "Fine with me, I'll just beat the students in the first place." Then she smiled cockily. "Is this a bet?"

Tsunade nodded and held out her hand. "I believe it is."

Nara took the hand and shook it. "If I remember correctly, didn't you take winning bets as a bad sign?"

"Yes, and I still do." Tsunade said simply. "If I win, I'll have to deal with _you_."

"You could just let me go and be done with it!" Nara said brightly as she withdrew her hand.

"Not a chance."

**x.X.B.R.E.A.K.X.x**

It was just another day at the acadamy. Jirono-sensei was droning on again about commonly used strategies. The students were restless. For all of them , this would be their last year, and those six months that separated them from becoming genin were too far off.

Then, right in the middle of a speech about the faults in transformation jutsus, Tsunade-sama burst through the doors.

"Hokage-sama!" Jirono said in surprise. "What is it you require?" He asked anxiously.

Tsunade gazed at the classmates. She grinned slightly. "I need your highest scoring students in fighting. I have a little…mission for them."

Jirono stared at the Hokage in surprise, but did not comment on it as he read off the top three battlers.

"Haruna Cataki!"

Haruna stood up, wide eyed eager, and just a hint of smugness. A mission from the Hokage! This had to be big!

"Reniko Nara!"

Reniko stood up as well. He hoped the mission involved kicking the crap out of each other. He would love nothing better than to punch Haruna straight into next Saturday.

"And Koru Aburame"

Koru stood up quietly. She briefly wondered what sort of mission this would be. But her thoughts were more worried on if it had to do with teamwork. Haruna and Reniko were pretty much established as rivals who refused to work together.

Tsunade smiled eagerly at the three students. This was almost too easy. "Very well, you may continue with your lesson, except you three." She turned around and headed for the door. "I would like you to come with me."

To be Continued


	5. Results of Gambling

**Many thanks to Marjolein222, Vash3055, Secret World, and Alternative Angel, and all you people who put me on story alert. Sorry for the delay. SOMEONE couldn't come over for two entire weeks. And then our floors got sanded so my computer got stuck in the kitchen.**

"Why can't I use my bag?" Nara cried out in anger. Her clothes had been given back to her before the fight had begun and the hood once again covered her face.

"Because we are still testing it for anything lethal." Tsunade said simply. She did not have time to be arguing with Nara again.

They were in a small dojo where the fight would be taking place. The three acadamy students had not arrived yet, but the battle was less than an hour away so it would not be long.

The first to arrive was a small girl with dark pink hair who could have been no older than ten. She looked around awkwardly before walking towards the sole bench in the dojo and sitting down quietly.

Nara frowned briefly. She did not sense anything dangerous about the pink haired girl, but she did not seem very timid either.

The next who walked in was a boy who looked a lot closer to Naras age. Nara recognized the Sunagakure symbol on an armband he had on. His black up hair was up in a single low ponytail, and he wore mostly netting. He also seemed to have two odd looking wooden instruments at his waist. Nara could not figure out what they were. The boy appeared to be quite angry with the pink haired girl.

Nara watched them closely. If two of her opponents didn't get along, then maybe she could use it to her advantage…

The final acadamy student to enter was another girl, with dark circular glasses. She wore some sort of odd overcoat and a skirt of sorts. Most likely an Aburame. How was that for ironic? Nara briefly wondered if the female Aburame was in anyway related to the ANBU who had been her 'body guard'.

In one last attempt, Nara spoke to Lady Tsunade. "So…why exactly is my bag lethal?" Nara gained a slight shimmer of happiness when she saw her opponents react, even slightly to her statement.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, gripped Naras shoulder quite tightly and leaned down so they were eye level. "Listen, you get four kunais and that's final. Your opponents get one__kunai. Not another complaint or you will lose by default."

Nara nodded reluctantly. "Fine." After a moments silence, Nara smiled mischievously. "What kind of jutsu can I use then?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Any jutsu. As long as it's not deadly." The last part was really just to close up any loopholes. Tsunade highly doubted this girl had any deadly jutsus.

Finally somewhat satisfied, Nara said nothing else in protest and walked to one edge of the battle field. The three acadamy students followed suit, and stood at the other edge of the field.

**x.X.x**

Haruna stared at her opponent a bit shocked. It was the same person she had found in the forest! Why did they have to fight her? Or was it a him? Haruna couldn't tell with the hood blocking most of her opponents' face. Not that it mattered. Haruna still planned on winning this fight as close to single-handedly as she possibly could. After all, nothing could beat her Zajigan.

**x.X.x**

Who the hell was this guy? Reniko frowned. The guy seemed tough (what did he mean by lethal?!). But with Haruna undoubtedly planning to be a glory hog, no way was he going to be afraid. He would show Haruna what it meant to be a REAL shinobi.

**x.X.x**

Why Reniko and Haruna? They would undoubtedly clash. Koru pushed up her glasses. The opponent was the same she had encountered with Haruna. The figure with the hood seemed to be fairly confident in whatever strategy he had planned. It would be best for herself to let Reniko and Haruna duke it out and stay out of the way, in order to avoid any unneeded confrontations.

**x.X.x**

"Begin" Tsunade said, when no one moved for a second or so.

"Hi" Nara said, waving her hand back and forth. The acadamy students looked at each other.

"Uhhh…_hi_…" said Reniko.

"Heh, this is actually my first official fight, so…don't expect too much kay?" Nara said, a bit embarrassed. "Names Nara by the way. Just Nara."

Reniko silently thanked the powers-that-be that Sarunte was not there. That idiot Uchiha would undoubtedly find it hilarious that Renikos family name was similar to this guys' personal name.

Tsunade groaned and rubbed her temples. "Why aren't you three fighting?" She asked in disbelief. It was like they had never been in a fight before! Oh…right…

Haruna frowned a bit. "Uhhh…"

Reniko smirked. Now was his chance! "Guess I'll go." He said dryly and formed that rat hand sign. He cried out "Shadow possession no jutsu!" and a long black line stretched from his feet and headed towards Nara.

Nara jumped and effectively dodged. "Hey wait!" She cried out. "You're from the Nara clan aren't you??"

Reniko blinked in astonishment. "Well…uhhh…"

"Are you related to Shikamaru?" Nara asked in an almost fangirl tone.

"How…? How do you know my dads' name?" Reniko asked in shock. His shadow shrunk back to its original form.

Naruto turned a bright red (Not that you could see, with her hood covering her face) and pushed her pointer fingers together. "Uh, no reason. Just forget about it! It's nothing!"

Reniko gaped at Nara in confusion. How did some random kid who he never met before know not only his clan name, but his DADS name as well? He stole a glance at Haruna.

Haruna seemed to be quite frustrated at the moment. Her Zajigan was activated, turning her light blue eyes a dark purple with an odd symbol in the place of her pupils. For some weird reason, the Zajigan had no affect on Nara…

All of a sudden, it hit him. _Nara couldn't see the Zajigan through the hood!! _Nara was as good as immune. Reniko had to remember to use that fact against Haruna next time she used her Zajigan in a game of _Kill the Hokage_…

Koru raised her arms slightly and bugs began to fly out of her sleeves. They swarmed towards Nara.

Nara sighed. "I was right. Aburame."

Koru raised an eyebrow. "And how do you know MY family name?"

"…well…Aburame uses bugs right? Like how shadows are a Nara trait." Nara said in a matter of fact tone. It seemed quite obvious to her. Those were the clans that had filled her bedtime stories when she was younger until…

Haruna frowned. What about her? The Cataki clan was very prestigious after all. "Hey? Hey!! What about my clan? Do you know MY clan??"

Nara shrugged. "Well, I haven't seen any of your jutsu so-"

All of a sudden, Reniko burst into laughter. "That is rich!" He said, almost in hysterics. "Go ahead runt! Show him your jutsu!"

Haruna whipped her head towards Reniko. "Shut it Reniko!"

Reniko clutched his stomach and doubled over in pain. "God dammit Haruna. Wha's your problem?"

Haruna had accidentally released the power of the Zajigan on her own teammate.

Nara sweat dropped and turned to Tsunade. "Aren't they supposed to be teammates?"

Tsunade didn't reply. This was not going well at all. She would have to remember to never ask three acadamy students to fight ever again. She should have chosen a genin team.

Suddenly, Nara felt her body begin to weaken. Shoot. She had forgotten about the bugs! How could she have forgotten about the bugs?

"I'd advise you to give up, Nara." Koru said simply. "Lack of chakra never helps in a battle."

"Sorry can't do that!" Nara began to form hand signs. "Shadow clone no jutsu" She muttered under her breath. Ten other Naras promptly appeared.

By this point, Haruna had deactivated her Zajigan and Reniko had finally lost all hints of pain. Reniko withdrew the wooden instruments, which turned out to be two small fans, and opened them. "Wind Scythe no jutsu." He hissed, and two gusts of wind traveled to the original Nara. Unfortunately, it blew away all the bugs.

"Nice job Reniko." Haruna said sarcastically.

"Keh!!" Reniko said in surprise. "That wasn't my fault!"

"You have GOT to know Temari!" Nara said excitedly.

Reniko stared at Nara. "How. The hell. Do you know my mom?"

Inner Nara had become a full fangirl. Shikamaru and Temari? Married. That was so…CUTE!! Dad had always assumed Shikamaru would have married Ino…oh well! Nara liked Shikamaru and Temari much better…

"Wait, then are you related to Shino?" Nara asked Koru eagerly.

Koru sighed. "He's my mothers' cousin. He's currently an ANBU captain."

Nara widened her eyes and turned to Tsunade. "Wait…was he…?"

"Just. Fight." Tsunade growled, contemplating what would happen if she killed four very annoying children…

"Shadow possession no jutsu" Reniko silently said to himself. It attached to the Nara who had been talking to Tsunade. "Gotcha!" he cried out in success.

One of Naras clones charged and punched Reniko in the jaw. Reniko fell back, mostly out of shock. "That…was a clone?" He asked in disbelief. There was no way!

The clone withdrew a kunai and placed it against Renikos neck. "What do YOU thi-"

The clone found herself rammed into and she flew across the room, and instantly vanished with a small poof.

Haruna glared at the nine remaining clones, and the one real Nara, "Only **I **can make Reniko look bad." She had mostly meant it as a witty comeback, but it was fairly true. Reniko was her idiotic rival after all. If he got beaten, what would that say about her?

Reniko got up. He mumbled something about not needing a runt like her to help him.

Koru quickly counted the remaining Naras. "Nine. Nine Naras left. We each take three, yes?"

Reniko smirked. "You take three, I'll take six. Since obviously, Haruna won't be able to keep up." He made the rat hand sign and his shadow shot out once more.

He captured two of the Naras.

One of the captured smirked. "Here's a question, what now?" Reniko cursed under his breath. He hadn't thought of that…

"You die" Came a voice, and Haruna appeared with two kunais in hand. Each of them were aimed at the neck of the captured Naras.

"Stole Renikos' kunai." Haruna said in explanation of her extra kunai. Reniko responded by giving her a rude finger gesture.

The two Naras were not afraid in the slightest. "What if one of us is real? Could you deal with a murder?" Questioned one of the Naras. The other one nodded in agreement. "Taking a life is no laughing matter"

"Watch me." Haruna snarled, and she plunged the two kunais into the Naras chests. They both disappeared with a 'poof'!

Reniko craned his head. "Where'd all the other clones go?" He cried out angrily.

Koru pushed her hands in her pockets. "You were slow." Koru had managed to take down the other seven clones by herself.

Reniko furrowed his brow. "Then where's the real one?"

"There she is!" Haruna cried out. Reniko and Koru turned around, only to find themselves facing not one, but **two **Harunas.

A dead silence filled the room. Tsunade said nothing, finally getting the fight she had bet on.

The two Harunas stared at each other.

"She was Nara five seconds ago! I swear!"

"No! She was!"

"No! She was the one who killed the clones! Why did you think she did it?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I would never take a life unless I HAD to. I am a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf after all."

"But…I-!! You—They were just clones!!"

"Interesting. How could you know that unless you are Nara?"

Reniko breathed rapidly. He couldn't tell which one was the real Haruna. They both seemed to be just as annoying and arrogant.

Koru couldn't tell either, since she had not attacked either one yet.

Why wasn't the real Haruna using her stupid Zajigan? She was always flaunting it.

"Activate your Zajigan!" Reniko roared.

Both Harunas stared at him. "ON WHAT?" they screamed in unison.

"Naras stupid hood gets in the way."

"The transformation jutsu doesn't help either!"

"I'm not Nara!"

"You knew those clones were fake!"

"No I didn't!"

"Then why did you attack them with an intent to kill?"

"Because Hokage-sama is RIGHT THERE!"

Reniko raised in eyebrow in confusion. "So?"

"Shes a medical ninja you neko-baka!"

The other Haruna paused. "Neko-what now?"

Unfortunately, there was no way of poor Nara knowing about a nickname Reniko had been christened by a very loud mouthed Uchiha. That slip up was all it took.

Shadow shot out and bugs swarmed. And with a disappointing poof, Haruna turned back into Nara.

"How the heck…?" Nara asked in astounded disbelief.

"You've obviously never met Sarunte." Reniko said coolly.

The real Haruna made a peace sign and stuck her tongue out at Nara. "I win" She said cheerfully.

Tsunade stood up. "Match over. You lose Nara."

"Wait a minute! I can still fight! It's not like I can't-"

"Zajigan"

For the briefest of seconds, Haruna saw Naras eyes. That was good enough for her. Haruna activated her Zajigan and trapped Nara in her hypnosis.

Nara found herself collapsing as Reniko withdrew his shadow. Everything slowly dimmed, and finally, everything went black. Her last thought before passing out for practically the third or fourth time since she got here was:

I really REALLY hate this place.

To Be Continued


	6. Not a Chapter

**Unfortunately, this is not a chapter. This is an authors' note. I would like to say we have FAN ART. Yep! Keep in mind that neither I, nor the other coauthor (also known as Aeae) drew this, and it is not really 'canon'. However, the two pictures are awesome anyway, and you should all look.**

**You can head to my deviant art account (the link is on my profile) or you can follow these quick links! (if they do not work, then go to my profile, and find it from there)**

**Harunas' Zajigan: **a-h-r./art/Written-in-Code-Fanart-1-100930486

**Nara in a hood: **a-h-r./art/Written-in-Code-Fanart-2-100930701

**Full credit goes to Aeaes' friend (whose name I cannot recall, once I figure it out, I will put it up)**


	7. Those Left Behind

**Many thanks to Lady Rini, KnighteWolf, XDarkRider, Alternative Angel, Grey Mage, and Marjolein222 for reviewing the last chapter. And I am happy to give you a new chapter! Read away!**

"WHAT!?!"

The single yell was heard throughout the Hyuuga household. The yell of Hanabi Hyuuga, head of the Hyuuga household was not one heard often. Which made the incident that much scarier.

Hanabi had just been told that she was an aunt. That alone would normally of shocked her, but what shocked her much more was there was a random girl running around with the Hyuugas precious kekkai genkai.

It had been bad enough when her sister Hinata had run off. Many had been worried that the Byakugan secret would have been discovered within a month. But Hinata was a trained ninja of the Leaf and fully capable of defending herself. Despite her abilities being inferior to most Hyuugas, Hinata was probably the strongest taijutsu user in her year, and was still a Gentle Fist user in her own right.

But this girl was clearly not. Reports from Shizune had revealed that her Gentle Fist was at the level of a five year old and Shizune had easily penetrated the defenses. Add on the fact that this girl was most likely not to be trusted, and the Hyuugas were in a horrible bind.

Neji Hyuuga tried to calm Hanabi, but to no avail. He was just as frazzled as she was but luckily years of withholding his anger from his family had put him in better control of his current anger.

"She will be put in the Ninja Acadamy, so we will be able to keep an eye on her," Stuttered the chuunin who had had the misfortune to relay the news to the Hanabi.

Hanabi stared at the poor chuunin with eyes that could kill a man. "Not only has she been taught the ancient Hyuuga secrets, but she has brought disgrace to the name by evidencing skill no greater then a toddler! Furthermore I am not as trusting as Hokage-sama nor do I intend to let it all go just because a few people see it fit to give away more Konoha secrets!"

Neji couldn't help but pale a bit and take a step back. Hanabi had proven to be an apt leader of the Hyuuga clan, and Neji was proud to serve under her. She had also stopped the practice of the cage bird seals and had used much more humane methods to keep the Byakugans' abilities a secret.

Usually good natured, when Hanabi was angry no one stood in her path. So it took a great deal of courage for Neji to raise his voice.

"Hanabi-san, I think it would be best if we were to meet this child."

Hanabi paused, almost considering it, but did not say anything. The chuunin looked around sheepishly before heading out the door. "I wish you the best of luck!" He said quietly before heading back to his post.

"Neji. What would meeting her do to help this situation?" She said in an oddly cold voice.

"She is your niece. We could train her to bring her up to standards on the Hyuuga blood line. If she is in fact the child of Hinata and Naruto…I don't think we have to worry about a betrayal from her." Neji countered calmly. It surprised him, really, to think of Naruto and Hinata procreating, but stranger things had happened,

Hanabi was quiet, and took a long deep calming breath. "Neji, she is the head of this household." She said bitterly.

Neji almost wanted to slap himself. He had forgotten Hinata had been the heiress to the Hyuuga clan. By birth, the girl would inherit the right to rule the clan. This was clearly something very important to Hanabi. It was one thing knowing you could never be leader of the clan due to the unfortunate timing of birth, but another thing to have that title, and then have it wrenched away from you unexpectedly.

"We will not be meeting her." Hanabi continued. "We can't…I can't…I refuse… There is no possibility of meeting her." She ended lamely.

Neji did not raise his voice in protest. This obvious was a very tender spot for Hanabi. It was best if they gave it some time, and waited until this girl was given the title of genin. At that point, Hanabi would have undoubtedly cooled down, and be more horrified that a girl was running around with only basic gentle fist techniques then anything.

"And if she does anything that will jeopardize our bloodline, she will get the caged bird seal." Hanabi said stonily, more to herself than anyone else.

Neji gawked at her. "Hanabi-san! But you outlawed that! You can't be serious!"

"I am Neji. And that is final." She said in a tone that suggested further prodding would result in loss of limbs.

Neji fell silent and said nothing as Hanabi left the room. Neji collapsed on the ground against the wall and absentmindedly raised his hand to his forehead. The caged bird seal mark was still there on his forehead. It was a dead seal, and no longer worked, but Neji had kept the markings as a reminder of what once was. He couldn't let anyone else suffer that fate.

**xXx**

Kiba yawned in boredom. Things had gotten really slow since his kids had gotten to chuunin rank on their first try. Yeah, he was really proud of them, but having prodigies as students meant they had more solo missions, which left him all alone and bored. Akamaru whined in boredom with him.

Of course, they were only chuunins. Kiba was a jounin and still had certain powers over them. So he hadn't lost his students just yet. After all, he could still force them to go on one of his infamous 'camping trips' which also had given Kiba the infamous nickname 'that sadistical bastard' by Inote.

"Kiba" Came a deep voice a couple of feet away.

"Whaddya want Shino? Don't you have ANBU things to do? That don't involve me?" Shino was Kibas best friend, but that didn't mean that Kiba was a bit pissed off that Shino had abandoned him to join the ANBU.

Ok, it hadn't really been abandonment, but it broke up the last two members of team eight. (Kurenai did not count, since she had jumped ship to raise her child)

"Kiba, it is the utmost of importance you listen to me. Why? Because I have some news that will startle you."

Kiba scoffed and Akamaru laughed with him. "Beat it Bug Boy. Nothing you say could possibly shock me. You're dealing with an Inuzuka here! If there's bad news just tell me. Kidnapping? Dogs are banned in Konoha? Try me."

"It's Hinata Kiba."

Kiba sat up. "What…what about her Shino? Is she back? Shino if you are fucking with me I swear I'll-"

"She is dead. Her daughter however is not."

Shino waited for the words to sink in, and witnessed Kiba turn a very odd shade of purple.

"She…what…how…why…WITH WHO…?"

"Well Kiba, she had a child, and I believe I don't need to educate you on the how or the why of the process, but I believe the perpetrator was Uzumaki."

"Naruto…?"

"Unless you are aware of another Uzumaki we have never met, I am fairly sure it was implied."

Kiba paled a bit. "That bastard…I'm gonna rip his head off."

"He is dead as well, Kiba."

Kiba said nothing, and looked at the sky. "So…Hinata…has a daughter…?" He said in a quiet voice.

Shino nodded. "Yes, named Nara. She has the Byakugan, seems to have Narutos fighting style. She shows intelligence that Naruto did not usually exhibit, so it seems likely she is more like Hinata."

Only Shino could make such a moment be boring and dry. Kiba honestly didn't know why he was friends with Shino sometimes. But they had been through thick and thin together, and Kiba knew he should probably thank Shino for even telling him in the first place.

"Are you even authorized to tell me this Shino?" Kiba asked in a slightly nicer voice.

"No" Shino said without hesitation. "But I decided it would be wise to put our friendship before the orders of my superiors."

"Who else knows?" Kiba asked feeling suddenly very greatful that Shino was his friend.

"Shikamaru will undoubtedly learn within the hour. The Hyuuga clan has been informed. Sakura will learn sooner than later and anyone in Tsunades inner circle has already been told."

Kiba groaned. "Damn it, am I the only one left out of the loop?"

"Ino and Chouji have not been informed. Nor has TenTen or Lee"

Kiba ignored him. "Lousy no good people… not telling me… Naruto running off with Hinata…having a kid… this whole thing is…"

Shino sighed. It was no use talking to Kiba when he was like this. Better to let Kiba calm down and then talk to him afterwards. He gave a brief nod to the two of them before disappearing in a swirl of bugs.

**xXx**

Sakura sat at her desk filing paperwork. She was a Jounin, stuck doing paper work. Or to be more accurate, doing _Tsunades _paperwork. She had learned a lot from Tsunade over the years, but it absolutely aggravated her that Tsunade refused to do the paper work.

A shadow fell across her desk and she looked up to see Shikamaru.

"Hey Shikamaru." She said pleasantly. They had become close friends over the past years, especially since Narutos disappearance, and it wasn't uncommon for him to eat lunch with her.

However Shikamaru did not get off for lunch for another hour or so, and judging by the seriousness of his face, something struck Sakura as immediately wrong.

"Shikamaru, is something wrong?"

Shikamaru sighed and sat down. "This isn't going to be easy, and it's going to be downright troublesome, but everyone agrees I should tell you."

Sakura frowned. "Tell me what?" She asked, already her imagination went to twenty different places wondering what horror Shikamaru would not want to tell her.

"Long story short. The daughter of the late Naruto and Hinata is in this village. She is currently entered in the ninja acadamy and is going to be taught to be a ninja, obviously. Now if you don't mind, I will be leaving now to tell Temari before my two idiot kids get home."

Sakura sat in stunned silent as Shikamaru hurried out of the door. Her breathing became uneven and her heart sped up. Naruto…

The late Naruto. The late Hinata. Their daughter. Here.

She dropped her pencil and stared at the ceiling. No, Shikamaru couldn't have been serious. But there was simply no way he would ever lie to her about that.

She got up and walked out of her office. "Takada. Take over my paperwork" she instructed a passing ninja.

Takada groaned. "C'mon Sakura I have my own work I need to-"He was cut off by the glare he received. "Right away ma'am."

Sakura walked outside and headed for a restaurant. One bad habit she had received from Tsunade was that she had drinking habit. It never got as badly out control as it did with Tsunade occasionally, And Sakura hadn't drank sake in over six weeks, but something told her she would need to be drunk in order to process the information.

She went into an old musky restaurant and ordered a bottle of some heavy sake. As she drank the contents, her mind settled into a pleasant haze. She let the words bounce effortlessly across her mind.

_Narutos dead_

_Hinatas dead_

_They have a daughter_

_They were together_

_They had a child_

_And now that child was here_

_In Konoha_

Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the tears came flowing down her face. Naruto Uzumaki, the number one knuckleheaded ninja, was dead.

To Be Continued


	8. Its a Boy!

**That's right! A steaming fresh new chapter! All for you guys! Many thanks to our three reviewers Lady Rini, Marjolein222 and maudlinthemad. Please, keep on reviewing, it's what gets us through the weeks and write another chapter.**

Reniko walked into the acadamy as he had for the past couple of months. Tired, and extremely bored. In only a couple of months (not even) he would be graduating and be an honest to goodness genin. The only ones who really needed to come anymore were the morons and idiots who wouldn't know genjutsu from ninjutsu.

Reniko stopped at the entrance when he saw someone sitting down in the way back. It was that kid! What was his name? Nar… Nor…Ner….Nare…Naro! That had to be it…

But, what was HE doing here? Tsunade-sama had told them specifically that the mission was top secret and they weren't allowed to breathe a word of it to anyone. Koru and Haruna hadn't shown up yet, so it was up to him.

He made a beeline for the mysterious orange clad kid and slammed his hands on his desk.

"What the heck are you doing here Naro?" He whispered murderously.

"Well, since you beat me in the last mission, you gain a new classmate Funny how that works out huh?" The Naro kid said fluidly without missing a beat.

Reniko opened his mouth to reply with some smart and witty comment, but it never came, and he ended up looking like a disturbed fish. Curse his brain for failing him at such an important moment. He folded his arms and slunk away with what little dignity he had managed to uphold in the event.

He headed to his seat and settled next to the sleeping Sarunte. Poor Sarunte, his parents had him up at the crack of dawn to work on jutsus and katas and who knew what else.

Sarunte was oddly tan for an Uchiha. Renikos dad, Shikamaru, had mentioned quite a few times that the previous Uchihas of Konoha were actually quite pale. However, living in much warmer climates and interbreeding with some of natives who were quite dark had eventually introduced a much darker pigment to the Uchiha clan.

Reniko saw Haruna and Koru come into class along with the regular gaggle of students. The teacher entered shortly after and Reniko shut off his brain and prepared for some review of some jutsu that he had already mastered a couple of months ago.

**xXx**

This was going to be interesting, Nara thought dryly. She had never been in a class before. It would be interesting to match up her skills with the rest of Konoha. She thought momentarily to the bet that she and Tsunade had made.

She just had to make through the acadamy and fail the genin test and she would be free. There was also the possibility of leaving at a chuunin level, but Nara was not planning on sticking around for that long. She would only have to spend a minimal of a month or two here. Hopefully…

"Greetings everyone, as some of you might have noticed we have a new student! Would you care to introduce yourself?" Said the teacher.

Nara made no movement to show that she had heard the teacher.

The teacher looked down at his list. "Errmmm…Nara…! Could you please introduce yourself!"

Nara stood up for a moment. "Er…hi…Im pretty sure you've got my name wrong. Nara, is _his _family name." She said, gesturing to Reniko. "Right?" A giggle went throughout the class.

If she was going to have to endure a month of this class she was going to make sure they knew as little about her as possible and that it was a living hell for her teacher.

"My name is…" Struck by the inspiration of Reniko, Nara smiled widely. "Naro. My name is Naro." She immediately sat down.

"Well, thank you. I am Jirono-sensei." The teacher said, a bit flustered he had gotten the name wrong. "Now we will be starting back on the clone jutsu."

A collective groan sounded off as if on cue, and Nara sat up a bit straighter, finally interested in the class.

Reniko moaned painfully. "Again? C'mon! That jutsu is so freaking basic I could that in my sleep!" He said in a hoarse voice.

If Jirono-sensei heard Reniko, he gave no indication of it. "Now who can tell me the advantages of this jutsu?"

Harunas' hand shot up as if it was on fire. She was incredibly eager to answer the question and seemed to be the only one.

One snort and grunt later, the drooling Uchiha sprang to life. "huh? Wha? Whad happened? 42!"

Jirono-sensei narrowed his eyes. "Uchiha Sarunte! If you are so content on sleeping in class, why don't you answer the question?"

Nara blinked in astonishment. No…oh no way…she must have heard wrong. There was simply no way that an _Uchiha _was in this very class. The only Uchiha left was Itachi. The rest had been killed by that very same Uchiha! What was going on here?

"Ummm, yeah, yeah, sure! Uh, what was the question 'gain?" Sarunte asked groggily.

The teacher sighed in annoyance, but gave the question again. "The advantages of the clone jutsu."

Sarunte smiled brightly and waved his hands in the air. "You make clones" He said excitedly. "So yeah! The dude'll get confused and all, an' you can kill him and stuff!"

The teacher sweat dropped and turned back to Haruna. "Haruna…would you like to clarify?"

Haruna giggled in triumph. "When you use clone jutsu an illusion of more than one of you will appear. This can confuse an enemy for a sneak attack and it's also useful if he is using a deadly jutsu." She flashed an arrogant smirk at Sarunte, who replied with a steely grin that showed his oddly sharp teeth.

Nara nodded in agreement with Harunas' definition. It was a perfect textbook answer. Or at least, she assumed it was, since she hadn't gotten around to checking out the textbooks of this school.

Jirono-sensei nodded and turned back to the rest of the class. "Very good class, now each of you will perform the clone jutsu. Get in line!"

Reniko and Haruna jumped up simultaneously to try to get to the front first. They were both beaten by Mitsu who flashed them both the peace sign. Nara, alternatively, was in the way back.

"Go Mitsu"

Mitsu smiled as he proceeded to make eight other clones exactly like him.

"Reniko"

Reniko made six clones successfully.

"Haruna"

Haruna gulped nervously. She gave a small smile, and her eyes turned a violent shade of purple. "Zajigan" She muttered under her breath.

"Ten clones? Great improvement Haruna!"

Reniko paled slightly and hissed some rude words at Haruna as she retreated back to her seat. Sarunte would have helped Reniko but at the moment he was making six clones appear.

"Er, Naro." Jirono-sensei said as every other last student performed the jutsu with varied results.

Nara sighed reluctantly and made her shadow clone jutsus hand signs. She had honestly never learned to do normal clone jutsu. There was no need to stand out. She summoned four clones.

Jirono-sensei frowned slightly. "In order to pass, you need to have a minimum of five clones. Work on that will you?"

"Sure" Nara said dully, and she returned to her seat.

Sarunte frowned. "Hey, wazzn't that the wrong hand signs?"

Reniko sighed and nodded. "Yes. Yes they were. Lousy clone jutsus…somehow solid clones… He can make ten of those things!"

Sarunte raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously. "An' you know this HOW?!?"

Reniko groaned and sat back. "Never mind."

Class let out for lunch, and the students hurried outside to eat some much needed food. A couple of students noticed the absent of a certain Naro, but no one paid too much attention, and the majority assumed he was having a chat with Jirono-sensei.

Haruna ate her lunch quietly on the swing, when to figures confronted her.

"S'up runt?" Sarunte asked cheerfully.

Haruna turned away. "Go away idiots." She said, clearly annoyed.

Reniko scoffed. "Fine. Under one condition."

Sarunte nodded in agreement. "Ya hafta do a clone jutsu!"

"And don't even think of cheating runt!" Reniko said quickly, almost flinching, as if Haruna just activated her Zajigan.

Haruna stared at them and stood up. "Leave me alone." She said simply. "Just leave me alone."

"C'mon runt! All Reni here and I wanna see is a lousy little clone jutsu! You can do that right? Course, you're only nine so maybe ya can't." Sarunte said back in practically a sing song voice.

"I can so do a clone jutsu!" Haruna shouted back. "I can!"

"Then prove it!" Reniko said angrily, pushing her back lightly.

"You know, bullying a fellow ninja is certainly not very shinobi like."

Reniko and Sarunte whipped around in surprise. Who had said that?

Reniko saw out of the corner of his eye, Naro, leaning against the tree. "Oh. _You_. Look, this is none of your business."

Naro laughed slightly and took a step forward and shrugged. "I'm just saying."

Sarunte frowned and waved his arms around again. "We're not bullying her! So there!"

If they could see past the hood, they would have seen Nara raise an eyebrow. "Really now? So then what were you doing hmm?

Reniko stared at Sarunte awkwardly. How to explain this…

Unfortunately, Haruna was next to speak. "They always pick on me because I have a kekkai genkai and they don't."

Sarunte hit her on the head. "OI!! Watch it ya little liar!"

Naro crossed her arms and frowned deeply. "If she was lying, why don't you explain?"

"Reni..?" Sarunte asked Reniko pleadingly.

Reniko sputtered for a moment before composing himself. "We're helping her out if anything!"

Haruna jabbed him sharply in the chest and stared at him furiously. "No you're not! You're just being mean!" She cried out. Oddly enough, no one else seemed to be paying attention to the incident at all. Even the chaperones seemed to find something intensely interesting with the dirt on the ground.

Nara was beginning to regret ever to coming to Harunas' rescue in the first place.

Reniko smirked at Haruna and jabbed her just as hard in her chest. "Ever heard of tough love runt?"

Sarunte nodded in agreement. " 'Sides, me an' the neko-baka here 'll leave once she does the clone jutsu!"

Reniko grimaced at Sarunte for the nickname. Couldn't Sarunte not call him that in public? It was embarrassing.

"Your forcing her to do something she doesn't want to do. Where I come from, that's _bullying_. Well, unless your enemy ninja, then it's ok…" Naro trailed off.

"Well you're not there anymore!" Reniko cried out indignantly

Sarunte brightened suddenly. " 'Sides, if what we're doin' is so horrible, 'ow come no one else is sayin' anything huh?"

Naro sighed in annoyance. "look, all I know is that she doesn't like it. So lay off."

Sarunte gawked at Naro for a moment. "Lay off??!?!?!?! You sicko!!!!"

There was an awkward silence. Followed by an annoyed groan form Reniko.

"That's not what he meant Sarunte. You've been spending too much time with that Gyaro kid." He said in aggravation. Only Sarunte…

"So?" Sarunte cried out in horror. "Now I have permanent mental images! IMAGES!!!" His voice raised a couple of octaves with the last emphasis.

Naro tilted her head to one side. "What is he talking about."

Reniko opened his mouth to say exactly what he was talking about, but decided against it. "Nothing." He said lamely. "He's just a perverted freak who needs to stop talking to Mitsu."

"HEY!!!" Sarunte cried out angrily.

Reniko felt a tugging on his arm, and found himself being dragged to the side by Naro. Once theye were out of earshot, Naro began to talk.

"Look," Naro began "Either you leave Haruna alone, or I tell your buddy over there you had your neck saved by that 'runt'."

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"Reniko yelled in a whisper voice. "We…we were ordered to not say anything!"

Naro smirked. "Correction. _You_ were ordered to keep your mouth shut. I received no such order."

Reniko opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again. "Fine." He grumbled, and he stalked back to Sarunte. "Le's go…it's not even worth it" he hissed and he grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him away to the farthest spot away from Haruna and proceeded to ignore them.

Haruna beamed at Naro. "Thanks a lot!"

Naro smiled back at her. "Anytime…but whose that Sarunte kid, exactly?" She asked, hoping that His last name merely sounded like Uchiha and it was not in fact the family name of Itachi.

Haruna wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That's Sarunte Uchiha. He's an idiot and he does whatever Reniko wants him to do."

"So…he really IS an Uchiha?" Naro asked, hoping she was simply having an off day and she had a lot of wax in her ears.

"Yeah, it's the fire clan. Not that I've ever seen him perform a fire jutsu or anything, but he claims he can do them. But I bet he's lying." Haruna said in a matter of fact voice.

Naro gritted her teeth in annoyance. Great, the Uchihas were back. Of course, that wouldn't mean they were all necessarily evil, but it was going to be horrible to see those horrid red orbs again after being so used from running away from them."

"Does…does Sarunte have the sharingan?" She asked nervously.

"No. 'course not. Why would he? The sharingan's extinct!" Haruna said in a tone that made it quite clear that Nara might as well have asked if Sarunte had a pet flying unicorn as well.

"Oh…right, never mind, brain freeze," Nara lied hastily. "So, you have a really cool kekkai genkai, what is it?" She asked abruptly changing the subject.

Haruna brightened suddenly, and was evidently quite happy to talk about her clan heritage. "It's the Catakis' clan trait. The Zajigan!"

Naro raised an eyebrow obscured by her hood and frowned. "So, what does it do exactly?" She asked curiously.

"Well, it creates an advanced form of Genjutsu. If you get really good, you can control peoples' minds!" Haruna said in a dreamy voice. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Haruna was fantasizing at the moment. Nara had a sneaking suspicion it involved Reniko…

"Well, ah, are you doing anything after school?" Naro asked conversationally.

Haruna bit her lip. "I have chores and homework, but I can meet you later or something!" She seemed incredibly eager for some odd reason.

Naro smiled hesitantly back. "Sure. I'll drop by or something."

"LUNCH IS OVER!! COME BACK IN!" Jirono-sensei yelled at the top of his lungs.

"You know? It's funny Naro" Haruna said gleefully, when I first met you, I thought you were a girl!" With a small giggle, Haruna retreated back to the classroom.

"yeah…ha…funny…" Naro said awkwardly, and she retreated back into the classroom. If only Haruna…knew, Nara mused amusedly to herself.

**xXx**

Konohamaru looked at the mission sheet. "It's a B ranked mission to guard some girl, who won't even leave Konoha?" He shifted his weight to one hip and looked back at his team of Moegi and Udon.

"You're kidding right?"

Tsunade sighed. "Nope. I wish I was, but I'm not. I don't kid."

Udon sniffled slightly and pushed up his glasses. "So, what is this girl exactly? Diplomats daughter? Undercover princess? Discovered spy?"

"No. We just need to keep an eye on her. She is however, the Hyuuga who caused all that chaos the other day" Tsunade said swiftly. She considered telling Konohamaru that she was the daughter of 'Naruto-sensei' but she held her tongue. This was going to be an aggravating two or three months and she was going to need her entertainment.

"Just make sure she doesn't leave the village, and she doesn't skip school" Tsunade said with an air of finality.

"It shouldn't be too hard if the chuunins keep an eye on her most of the day anyway." Moegi pointed out.

Konohamaru nodded stiffly and slunk out of the office. He was a jounin for crying out loud! Since when was the demoted to babysitting some Hyuuga orphan brat? Especially when he could be investigating the recent string of murders and robberies that had been happening in Konoha…

"Fine. Let's go guys." He said, and Udon and Moegi followed his lead.

"That was incredibly cruel of you Lady Tsunade" Shizune said once Konohamaru and his team left.

"Yes. Yes it was." Tsunade said with a satisfied smile. "But think of it as me doing him a favor. He will be able to be reunited with Naruto…ah…indirectly."

Shizune sighed. "Oh very well, but it won't end well."

To Be Continued


	9. Breaking the Rules

**Thanks to Lady Rini, Alternative Angel, i14, and ??? (prepare to die a slow and horrible death if you ever call me perrywinkle again! The co author wishes you luck in surviving…) Anyway, as a quick note, regarding certain events that have been happening in the Naruto manga, naturally this is an AU fan fiction so we can only say that Pein did not do the…damage… that he did in the manga. What do you want from us? We're only human…**

The acadamy let out and the future genin of Konoha bolted out like there was no tomorrow. Everyone went their separate ways and Nara was no different. She was on two missions; one mission was to get her bag back from Tsunade; the other mission was to find Ichirakus Ramen stand.

She gave a quick good bye to Haruna and promised to see her tomorrow, and she set off in the general direction of the villages' center. Hopefully.

It was then she realized she was being followed. Years of running had given her an almost sixth sense to this sort of thing. Someone was tracking her. Her breathing quickened and images of Itachi and bounty hunters flashed through her head.

She took a deep breath. She had to calm down. This was Konoha. If someone was following her at such a close range without actually attacking her, or not being noticed by any of the shinobi in the village, they had to be Leaf shinobi.

Meaning Tsunade didn't trust her in the slightest. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Nara made a beeline for her apartment that Tsunade had been kind enough to give her. Maybe the shinobi weren't really following her and she was just being paranoid.

Maybe they were Hyuugas or…

Oh who was she kidding? They were following her like a cat set on a mouse to make sure she wouldn't leave the village. She was going to _murder_ Tsunade-baachan.

In her apartment, Nara was surprised to see her bag waiting for her. There was no note, and nothing had been removed, although they had all been undoubtedly checked and sanitized.

A couple of hand signs later, and Nara activated her Byakugan. The three shinobi trailing her were not too far away. Normally, one would have to be an idiot to stay that close to their target. Apparently, they thought that Nara was too stupid to realize that she was being followed.

What did they think she was? Some stupid genin?!?!...Oh…right…she WAS a genin. No, not even a genin. A lowly acadamy student. Perfect. Just perfect.

She needed to do something about this. Not complain, but make their life a living hell. She absolutely detested this. She hated being watched over like some sort of prisoner (which, ok she was, but that wasn't the point). They could have at least talked to her. At least that ANBU who might be Shino had the decency to make his presence known to her. Although…he was probably under estimating her as well…

The question was, how to get those three shinobi to reveal themselves? Even if she headed straight for their direction, she doubted they would give away their position too willingly. They were after all, shinobi of the hidden leaf.

Suddenly, the answer became clear. It was so _simple_ really. How had she not thought of this before? Their mission was to keep her _in_ the village. All she had to do was 'accidentally' wander _out_ of the village. Perfect!

…But how would she do that? After all, Nara might not be able to find Ichirakus, but anyone could figure out where the outside of Konoha was. You just had to keep walking long enough. She needed a good excuse…

She deactivated her Byakugan, grabbed her bag, and hurried outside into the busy streets. If she could find someone from the acadamy, maybe she could fool them into leading her outside. The plan was just too vague. Even if she found someone, who was saying they would be willing to help the freaky new kid?

There was Haruna. But to be entirely honest, she had NO idea where Haruna lived. She supposed she could ask around…

Yeah, maybe she would do that. Ask around or something.

"STOP ICHIRAKUS! MURDERER OF HELPLESS BEINGS!"

Nara came to a dead halt. Ichirakus? Where? As important as it was to make a fool out of those idiot trackers, visiting the monumental landmark of Naruto Uzumaki came first.

"STOP THE MURDER!!! THOUSANDS OF BEINGS HAVE BEEN MURDERED SO YOU CAN STUFF YOUR FACES! STOP THE MURDER!!!"

Nara located the voice to some familiar red head that was extremely tall. He had a huge banner that had the word 'Ichirakus' in a crossed out circle. His right eye was missing as well which struck Nara as really odd. And on his left arm was a green tattoo that seemed to be almost _pulsating_.

He was in her class! That was it!

"He-ey Naro! Here to protest Ichirakus with me?" spoke the red head. He had an honest sort of smile, and seemed to be very convinced in whatever his cause was.

"Errr….who…who are you?" Nara asked sheepishly.

"Names Gyaro Mitsu! Of the Gyaro clan! Pleased to meet you!" He cried out cheerfully in a voice a bit louder then appropriate.

The owner of Ichirakus, a kind faced lady, seemed to be ready to walk out and beat poor Mitsu with a ladle.

Nara paused a moment to take in the scenery. Ichirakus ramen shop. It was small, but not cramped. Almost…quaint. The banners on the roof were still there, although the old man was not. Nara assumed that girl in charge must be Ayame. And the smell! The smell of ramen being made. It was exactly like her father had described. She almost wanted to cry of happiness to finally have found the place that Naruto Uzumaki had dined so many times in his youth.

The entire picturesque scene was ruined by Mitsu. With another loud shriek, Mitsu yelled the accusatory insults that he had said many times before.

"So…why exactly are you protesting Ichirakus?" Nara asked curiously, hoping there was a rational explanation to all of this.

"That…!" Mitsu hissed. "They…they just can't do this! It's not murder! Its genocide! GENOCIDE!!! And from our own farm as well…its obscene!"

"What is?" Nara asked, getting a bit annoyed by now.

Mitsu pointed to the sign that had been put next to the ramen stand.

NEW!

Try ICHIRAKUS new

VEGETARIAN

RAMEN

NO meat

NO preservatives or additives

ONLY the crispest and freshest of greenery, finest of this side of Konoha!

TRY NOW!

Nara frowned. "Wait…what?!?"

"Do you see? How dare the murder those innocent plants! It makes me want to puke just thinking about it! Being boiled and chopped up by such a cold blooded monster! HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT YOU PLANT KILLER?!?"

The last part was directed at Ayame, who had finally stepped out of the stand with a ladle and something that looked like a brand…

"Listen Gyaro brat. If you say one more word, I am calling the Hokage and calling this harassment! You leave now!"

Mitsu was unperturbed. "I am PROTESTING! As a citizen of Konoha I have every right to protest the INJUSTICES that you have done to the second class species of this society! Its people like you that cause our world to be so close minded and harsh!"

Nara raised an eyebrow under her hood. A plan began to form in her head. She took Ayame to the side.

"Listen…uhh. Ma'am, if I get rid of him, will you give me a free bowl of ramen? Please?"

Ayame smiled "If you do that, I'll give you all the ramen you can eat for a month!"

Nara gaped at her. "For real?"

"Are you kidding, this jackass has been _murdering_ my customers away like it was nothing. If you can keep him away, it's would be the least I could do. IF you can, that is."

Nara smiled wryly. "No. Problem." She stepped away from Ayame and walked up to Mitsu.

"Wow Mitsu, you really are right, what they are doing to those plants are absolutely _horrible_!"

Mitsu frowned, tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Heh?"

"You said that those plants came from your farm right? Where is it?" Nara asked with a winning smile and a heap of innocence.

Mitsu still stared at her as if she had sprouted to heads. "Errr….just outside of Konoha…I could show you…if you want…"

Naras' grin grew wider and her teeth shone through. "Really? That's great! Can you show me right now? Please? I've never seen a first class plant farm before."

Mitsu gaped at her like a fish. "Sure man. Just…uhhh…one quick question."

Nara shrugged. "Sure, whatever, what is it?"

Mitsu looked from side to side. "…You're not gay are you?"

**xXx**

"This has to be the most boring jobs, out of all the boring jobs." Konohamaru whined. They had been tracking this loser in the orange outfit since her class had let out. He was a jounin for Kamis sake! A chuunin could have done this blindfolded!

Why did Tsunade-sama see it fit to put three perfectly capable Jounin in charge of this so called 'B ranked mission' THIS WAS NOT A MISSION!

"Oh relax Konohamaru-kun" Moegi chided gently. "Nothing can be more boring than paperwork. Don't complain."

"'Sides, remember what Naruto-sensei used to say?" Udon said in a voice that briefly made Konohamaru want to turn around and snap his neck.

"No mission is unimportant!"

"Udon. Shut the hell up! There is a killer in Konoha with a string of murders behind him and all you can think of is quoting boss?" Konohamaru hissed with a murderous intent.

"Just trying to lighten the mood." Udon said stiffly with a trademark sniffle.

"Well don't do it! I wanted that mission! It was my mission! MINE!" Konohamaru snapped back childishly.

Moegi sweat dropped, and sighed in aggravation. Konohamaru usually got along great with Udon, but a lack of exciting missions made Kono-kun restless. He had gotten his hopes up with the mission of the murders, but in the end it was handed over to the Hyuuga clan. The fact that this girl was of Hyuuga descent most likely only added salt to the wound.

Udon snickered. "Looks like Mitsu hasn't quite caught on that this Nara girl is not a guy."

Moegi frowned, "Watcha mean Udon-kun?"

"See, everyone thinks that Nara is 'Naro' cause of that weird hood she wears." Udon said watching the occurrence as if it was some insanely entertaining soap opera.

Konohamaru nodded in agreement. They only knew she was a girl because Tsunade had been so kind to inform them of this. If Konohamaru hadn't known any better, he would have said that this Hyuuga brat was a boy.

"Well, 'Naro' just said some girly things in a mildly flirtatious matter." Udon said, cackling madly. "It looked like he was hitting on him or something!"

Moegi rolled her eyes. "This girl is smart, I don't think she would purposely flirt with anyone."

Udon cackled some more. "See, that's where you are wrong Moegi-chan. Guys have this whole 'no emotional' thing. That means that if you so much as hug another guy, you are automatically thought of as 'not manly'. Since Nara, Naro is not used to such a rigid society like this, she, he merely went into a friendly mode that would be normally accepted from a girl. But not a guy."

That was Udon for you. Always good for a definition or a translation. If only he could get rid of that eternally reoccurring runny nose and he might actually be a much more respected shinobi.

Konohamaru narrowed his eyes. "Wait…" He said slowly. "Where are they going?"

"The Gyaro compound why?" Udon said in a creepy tone. He tended to enjoy these missions for some insane reason. The other week he had actually congratulated a man for finally getting the guts to propose to his girlfriend of three years. The huge problem had been that Udon had been assigned to keep an eye on him since he was suspected to be a Sound spy. He had turned out clean, but he had never found out about the surveillance on him. So when a freak with coke bottle glasses and a runny nose congratulated him out of nowhere, he got a bit scared.

"Isn't the Gyaro compound…outside of Konoha?"

"Yeah, why-…oh. Oh shit. This is bad." Udon said, suddenly alarmed.

Moegi folded her arms. "Well, we just keep an extra close eye on her, it will be no problem."

Konohamaru jumped up frantically. "Don't you get it? She is using Mitsu to escape from Konoha! We have to stop her the minute she reaches the gates!"

He was met by blank faces.

"Look, even if she landed on a catapault and was sent flying across the border by accident, it is still our duty to stop her at all costs no matter what the situation." Konohamaru said in a strained voice. "We HAVE to stop her. The minute she crosses the border we intercept her."

Udon rolled his eyes. "Your just using this as an excuse to get some action."

Moegi nodded in agreement. "You really are."

Konohamaru turned a bright red and started foaming at the mouth. "I am SERIOUS! This is what the mission was about! This is our cause in life! We need to go! NOW!" And with that, he disappeared in a flash, undoubtedly getting a head start to the Gyaro compound.

Moegi looked at Udon, and Udon returned the gaze. "So…." Udon began. "What do we do now?"

Moegi groaned. "We might as well get ourselves embarrassed along with him, seeing as how he is our team mate."

And they too, disappeared in a flash.

**xXx**

As they reached the border, Mitsu kept talking on and on about plants. Evidently, the Gyaro clan was a plant based clan. Many of their jutsus revolved around plants. Which explained why Mitsu had been so aggravated by the situation in Ichirakus. He had grown up living side by side with plants. Almost Inuzuka style…only instead of dogs, celery.

Although, Nara resolved to never forgive Mitsu for attacking Ichirakus. That place was one of the centers of her childhood memories. He couldn't just deface it like that…

But, even if the shinobi tracking her left her alone, she did learn one big thing from this. She needed to watch her mouth. If she wanted to keep up this façade of being a guy, she had to make sure she didn't do anything feminine. She had already given Mitsu a scare, and she couldn't do that again. Especially not in front of Reniko.

That meant it was best to take a couple leafs out of her fathers' book, and act more like him. Maybe do a couple of pranks. Maybe come up with a catch phrase or something. Her father always did have a knack with saying 'Dattebayo' all the time. Although…she would have to come up with a new catch phrase. Dattebayo was too memorable. Maybe she could also speak in a gruffer tone or something. Although, everyone had already heard her speak, and there was no point in fooling Haruna, Reniko and Koru…

She would just have to make sure she didn't do anything that could be taken the wrong way. Especially in front of Mitsu.

"Well, We're almost at the compound. We just need to cross the gate and take a five minute walk or so. Then I'll show you our gardens and stuff. It's pretty epic." Mitsu said, cutting through Naras monologue like a clean knife.

He stepped past the gate and kept walking. It was Naras turn. Here went nothing…

One foot in front of the other an-

A shinobi appeared in front of her. He had an extremely long scarf for no logical reason. That almost seemed familiar.

"Nara! You have crossed the border! As due to Hokage-samas rules, you are under arrest!"

Mitsu raised an eyebrow. "Nara? What's that? Your club name or something?"

Two more shinobi appeared, although they seemed less professional then the scarf shinobi, and more annoyed and embarrassed. One wore glasses, the other was a kunoichi.

"Just…move along Mitsu." Glasses said in a thick voice. "There are way too many things to explain."

The Kunoichi tilted her head. "Long story short, Nar…o Naro, is not allowed outside the village borders."

Mitsu shrugged. "Oh. Ok then. See ya at school tomorrow then. Bye Naro!" He said, and with a carefree smile he headed in the direction of home.

"So." Nara said with her arms behind her head in an almost reclined position. "Nice to finally meet my stalkers. Since you obviously know my name, can I ask what your names are?"

The three shinobi looked at her in silence for a moment, but finally, the Kunoichi spoke up.

"I'm Moegi, and this is Udon-kun and Konohamaru-kun." She said in a sweet voice that was reserved for children under the age of eight.

…

…

Konohamaru. THE Konohamaru. The cute little midget that used to follow Dad around when he was still just a genin? No wonder he looked familiar! She had a picture of him in his diary when he had just passed the chuunin exams with Naruto. It had been one of the things that her father had brought with him when he had left, and he had given it to Nara as a gift.

This was amazing! No. Calm down. Calm down. Do. Not. Fangirl. Must. Not. Fangirl. She would just lose any dignity that she might have acquired throughout the day.

"Well, if you must know, next time you decide to stalk me, tell me first. Kay? I have the byakugan. NO ONE can track me like that. Not even jounins. I escaped a huge bunch of s ranked bounty hunters back in the stone country. And let Tsunade-baachan know that she needs to stop picking people because of her cruel sense of humor." Nara said in one fluid statement.

Konohamaru gaped at her for a moment. Baachan…that brought back memories. He and Naruto used to call Tsunade that all the time. He had stopped once he made a jounin, but Naruto kept at it. That is…until he disappeared without a trace.

"Cruel sense of humor?" Moegi said curiously. "What do you mean?"

Nara smiled widely. "She'll understand, and if you promise to tell me next time you stalk me, I might even tell you how I know about the time you used your double sexy jutsu to give Sakura a nose bleed."

It had always been one of Naras favorite story. Especially since mom would always get embarrassed after wards and not say a single thing for the rest of the night. She really did miss them…

The trio of jounin gawked at her, as the spawn of Naruto Uzumaki headed back to Ichirakus to claim her just reward.

"Hey, Kono-kun, what happened to arresting her huh?" Udon asked teasingly.

Konohamaru said nothing and stared in astonishment at the figure of Nara walking away.

"She…she…who…how…" He sputtered incoherently.

Moegi sighed. "C'mon Konohamaru-kun, let's go back and report to Tsunade."

**xXx**

It was early morning and Sarunte set off for school just as normal. He had overslept by accident and now was gonna be late. This was horrible. His parents would be furious. 'How will you ever match up to Daisuke now?' They would ask and shake their heads in embarrassment. Lousy Daisuke. What was so special about that loser cousin of his anyway?

Sarunte took a shortcut through an alley way behind the Korean BBQ shop. It would be quicker this way and the heavenly smell of fried pork would keep him motivated.

All of a sudden he felt an incredible sharp pain in his back. He collapsed, and saw to his surprise he was bleeding. A slight gust of wind and Sarunte found himself being sent flying and hit the hard wall of the alleyway.

More blood, errrgggghhhhh….. what was going on here?!?! All of a sudden, another light gust of wind hit him and he fell to the ground and began to cough up blood.

He couldn't even see what was happening. It was just wind gusts. He could barely get his hands together to form a jutsu. If he could see his opponent he could-

The wind nipped at his legs and multiple large gashes opened up. If he knew what he was facing, he could at least dodge…

If only he could see his enemy. Why couldn't he see? Oh for the love of god, why couldn't he see?

To Be Continued…


	10. Legacy of The Uchiha

**Thanks to Lady Rini, Marjolein222 (X2), KnighteWolf, Alternative Angel, ???, and Outlaw Knight for reviewing. You guys are all awesome, and I promise that graduation is coming in the next chapter, and we can finally get to the good stuff! And now for the epic conclusion! Well, ok not really, I mean, it's only chapter ten. God, you're going to have to wait for about twenty more chapters to get ANY type of conclusion.**

Tsunade sat with Shizune and all of the teachers from the Ninja Acadamy. In two days the Graduation exam would happen. The teachers had compiled a list of students who would most likely pass, and who would most likely fail. Of course, it wasn't always accurate, but it helped Tsunade get the right idea about what teams to make without having to delay the team makings.

"So anyway, my class will most likely all pass, except for Yusuke, but I don't expect him to. Naro also has undesirable grades, but from what I've gleaned from his file, I think he will rise to the occasion." Jirono said dully.

"Your class has the Uchiha, right Jirono-san?" Asked another chuunin.

Jirono nodded. "He is a bit slow, but he will pass easily."

"Since Haruno Sakura is applying for a genin team, I say we give the Uchiha to her. She has had plenty of experience with the clan." The chuunin said in continuation.

Tsunade silenced a groan, and Shizune sweatdropped. The same thing had happened two years ago when Daisuke had graduated. He had been placed under Rock Lee, since he was the only one who had any possibility of 'besting an Uchiha'.

It was sheer stupidity and ignorance. The Uchihas were just a fire clan. The same way the Nara clan was a shadow clan, and the Aburame were a bug clan. But no, everyone jumped on the Uchihas like every single one of them was an S-class missing nin waiting to happen.

"Actually" Jirono continued. "I was hoping to put Cataki and Uzumaki with Haruno."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

Jirono smirked. "Well, it's become quite obvious he is the son of Naruto Uzumaki, and meeting the last surviving team mate of team seven might do him some good. He also seems to have a strong friendship with Haruna Cataki. They work well together."

Shizune frowned. "They both have eye abilities. Wouldn't that be overpowering the team?"

Jirono gave a shrug. "True, but Haruna has no notable talents above average in any other field. Her taijutsu, I might add, is absolutely horrid. Naro, while gifted with the Byakugan, has the training in it of a five year old caliber."

Tsunade sighed. "Fair enough, they can be on a team. It would be good for the Uchiha to be on that team anyway. Their maturity might balance out his rashness."

There was a general mumble of agreement. "Now, onto Ketsuki Gyaro. He specifically requested to have his son on his team. Do we grant it?"

**xXx**

Two days. Two painful days left. Everyone was jittery about it, and no one tried to hide it. Even Haruna had started to stop paying attention in class.

Naros pranks had slowly but steadily increased. His favorite being the invisibility jutsu. At random intervals, Naro would disappear in the middle of class. Yet somehow he would still have perfect memory of any missed lessons.

Jirono entered the classroom. "Morning everyone. Is everyone here? Good-"

Reniko raised his hand. "Jirono-sensei. Sarunte isn't here."

Jirono blinked in surprise. Sarunte was never absent. Despite being a hot head, Sarunte was the type of person to drag himself to school even if he had small pox. It was just the way he was.

"Well then, errr, I guess I will just have to mark him absent."

Reniko shrugged. Where was Sarunte? It didn't make much sense. Saruntes mom would skin him alive if she found out her son was skipping classes.

Mitsu blinked. "Maybe his parents wanted to keep him home to teach him some jutsu or something. My parents have done that to me now and then."

Reniko sighed. "Yeah whatever, it's just a huge bother. He could have at least told me he wasn't going to come." He grumbled slightly. Who was he going to torment Haruna with now? It wasn't worth it to do it alone. Especially since Haruna had somehow magically acquired a body guard by the name of Naro. Bah. What an asshole.

Jirono threw some chalk at them. "Quiet you two. I have lessons to teach!"

There was a general groan throughout the class. It was all review. If you didn't know this stuff by now, then you were not graduating.

"Ok, Kekkai Genkai. Can anyone-"

The doors to the classroom opened, revealing a Sarunte Uchiha.

He looked almost like a doll. His face and any other revealing skin were covered in cuts and bruises, and dried blood had begun to stain his clothing. He was covered in dirt, and he looked absolutely spooked.

"S—sorry. Sorry I'm late." He said breathlessly. His voice cracked a bit, as if he had momentarily forgotten how to speak.

"Sarunte?!?" Jirono cried out in shock. "What happened here? Why didn't you go to the hospital?"

Sarunte began to walk forwards in an awkward limp. "I fell. Tha's all. There were these lousy stairs an' all, an' I forgot that my mom 'ad cleaned them the day before. I slipped, and fell on sum kunai and junk."

Jirono stared at him, with his mouth wide open. "Sarunte, tell me the truth."

Sarunte sat down quietly next to Reniko. "I jus' did Jirono-sensei."

Jirono tried to say something else, but nothing came out. "Very well Sarunte." He said stiffly. "But I advise you see the nurse during lunch."

Sarunte shrugged. "Yeah yeah, whate'er. Jus' don' tell my mom I was late. Please?"

Jirono gave a stuttered yes, and began to continue with his lesson.

"Ok then, Kekkai Genkai. What is it?"

Haruna raised her hand in excitement.

"Naro, since you are actually HERE today, why don't you answer the question?"

Nara sighed. She knew she should have just 'skipped' class today. But, Tsunade had threatened her with another year at the acadamy if she had done anymore funny business. At least Konohamaru had lightened up. After they had been reassigned to keep track of her, Moegi and Udon had decided to treat her as a friend. Konohamaru had decided, alternatively, to treat her like an evil demon. Which she resented. But recently, Konohamaru had stopped being distant, and had even treated Nara to some ramen. Of course, he had forgotten his money, and Nara had to pay, but it was the thought that counted.

"Kekkai Genkai. It's a bloodline trait. It's not to be confused with clan jutsus like the Naras' shadow jutsus, which are just clan secrets, but can be learned by anyone. You have to be born with a Kekkai Genkai trait to use it"

Jirono nodded. "Excellent. Name one."

"Sharingan." Nara almost said out of instinct.

"Preferably one that isn't extinct, Naro." Jirono said without looking up.

Naro scoffed. "It's not extinct." She mumbled. "Fine then, Zajigan."

Jirono didn't miss the comment. "Koru, please define extinct for me."

"It no longer exists," Koru said in a bored voice. "In this case, bred out"

Jirono nodded. "Good, now, Reniko, can you give me some examples of what the Zajigan can do?"

Reniko narrowed his eyes, and stared at Haruna with enough hatred to kill an army. Haruna stuck her tongue out at him.

**xXx**

Lunch came, and Sarunte had still not said a single word. He just sat there quietly with no lunch, picking absentmindedly on a scab.

"Earth to Uchiha" Reniko said waving some fried chicken in front of him. "c'mon, you know you want it. All you have to do is speak."

"I'm not hungry Reniko." He mumbled.

Reniko blinked. "Sarunte. You are always hungry. When you are not hungry, it usually means that there is an apocalypse right around the corner."

Sarunte sighed, and took the fried chicken reluctantly. "Fine." And he began to chew slowly.

Reniko was about to inquire more on his friends state of mind, when a duo caught his eyes. "OI! Naro! Got a question for you!"

Naro turned to him. "Yes?" He said in an annoyingly polite voice.

"What year is it? Cause last time I checked, it was the present. But you seem to think differently. Tell me, you do know there are five Hokages right?"

Naro sighed. " Very funny. All I said was that the sharingan was a kekkai genkai. That is a fact believe it or not."

Haruna nodded. "Yeah. You would know if you, you know **had **a kekkai genkai."

Reniko was not defeated yet. "Puh-lease runt. Like I would want some eye defect. Last time I checked, most kekkai genkai freaks end up as missing nins or total dick wads. "

Haruna gave a low growl, but said nothing else.

" What about the Hyuuga clan?" Naro pointed out.

"You ever see those people? They live in their own twisted little world. They used to brand their members just so that no one would learn about their precious eyes." Reniko scoffed.

"Have you ever MET any of them? Some of them can be pretty nice I'm sure!" Naro countered.

"Have you?" Reniko asked with a wide grin. "I heard your little accusation. You're pretty delusional you know that? I mean, the sharingan has been gone for decades, and all you can say is that it's still around. Are the Seven Demon Swordsmen of the Mist ALSO alive and kicking too?"

"Now you're just being rude." Naro said in a dismissive voice. "But it is still true. I have seen the sharingan."

"Yeah? Where? Name one person with the sharingan." Reniko said back. As an afterthought, he turned to Sarunte. "Sarunte?"

Sarunte looked up, a bit pale, as if he had seen a ghost. "What?"

"Does anyone in your clan have the sharingan?"

Sarunte gulped, and when he spoke, his voice was dry. "No, no it's been extinct. The last two to have the sharingan, was Itachi Uchiha, and his younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha. They were both missing nin at one point. Sasuke eventually came back, but he never was trusted to be anything more than a chuunin." He recited text book style.

Reniko grinned in victory. "See told you, so unless you know any missing nin or some kekkai genkai stealer, I advise you shut up before you make an idiot of yourself."

Naro folded his arms. "You're the one blowing it out of proportions."

Haruna frowned. "C'mon Naro. Let's GO." She said, tugging on Naros' sleeve.

Naro left without an argument.

"You didn't have to lie like that" Haruna said quietly, as they left the two boys.

"I didn't" Nara said simply.

Haruna groaned. "I'm talking about that stupid Sharingan stuff you were talking about. Everyone knows it doesn't exist anymore, and I understand antagonizing Reniko and all of that, but you don't have to make up stories like that. You'll only end up looking like an idiot."

Naro sighed, and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah, ok, what did you bring for lunch?"

**xXx**

Dinner at the Nara house was just as loud and annoying as usual. Shikari was finally back home from a mission, and Temari had made a homecooked meal that was actually mostly edible.

Shikamaru, unfortunately, had the misfortune of being late.

He slumped down at the table, positively tired.

"Eat, Shikamaru." Temari ordered. "This is the last meal before I go on the mission to Sunagakure, so enjoy the last meal you get to eat that isn't from a restaurant, or that you have to cook."

With that mournful note, Reniko and Shikari found themselves enjoying the meal much more. Temaris' cooking was bad, but Shikamaru in a kitchen meant death to all who ate it.

"Ugh." Shikamaru replied. "Damn Chuunin. Damn cloud ninjas. This whole thing is just one troublesome problem."

"If you're not going to eat, you're going to tell us." Shikari said, in between mouthfuls of rice. "It's about the murders isn't it? Kiba-sensei mentioned it in passing. Did they find the killers?"

Shikamaru groaned. "Yeah, bunch of cloud ninja bounty hunters. Well, exe cloud ninjas. They were missing nin. Anyway, we found them all murdered in a heap of carnage right behind the Korean Bar-B-Q restaurant."

Reniko choked on his water. "Whoah, wait, who did it? How? What murders?"

Temari sighed. "Right, forgot your left in the dark about most of this."

"There's a reason for that" Shikamaru mumbled. "He's just a troublesome acadamy student."

Temari frowned. "Well, since he's going to be hearing half of it, might as well tell him the first part."

Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his temples. "Fine, troublesome woman, poisoning our sons mind with unneeded violence, and asking ME to do it."

With a playful whack from Temari, Shikamaru launched into a full out explanation.

"A couple of weeks ago, there have been a string of murders. Mostly people with no families or friends. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any trace of the actual killers, and the bodies were to horribly mutilated to really provide any help on the murder weapon.

Even the Hyuugas couldn't pick up on them. It worried a lot of the upper Jounin, so we tried to keep it quiet from anyone not in the loop, although, how Kiba found out I'll never know. Anyway, this morning, we found, what was hopefully all of them in a heap. They were all dead, and by the looks of it, murdered by the same jutsu."

Shikamaru sighed, and let the whole situation sink in.

Shikari and Temari were now listening intently, since this was the part they had not heard through reports or senseis.

"Whether it was a traitor or someone sent from the cloud village to eliminate them we don't know, but the murders have stopped, so we think it's safe to say they were all killed or the rest ran away."

Shikari gave a low whistle. "Wow, must be a pretty powerful shinobi to take them all out like that considering we couldn't find them."

Shikamaru shook his head. "Actually, judging by the autopsies, their physique were below even acadamy level. They just had an extremely powerful jutsu. Which my entire team is trying to figure out. I just managed to get away."

Reniko grinned widely. "That's awesome, what did they figure out by the time you left dad?"

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Nothing you need to know about. Look, I don't want you to go spouting off this story to all the kids in your class. Tsunade would have me skinned alive."

Temari nodded. "good, now you can all shut up and eat now, I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks, and I know I'll be returning to a half starved family."

Shikari smirked. "Don't worry about me mom. I'll just eat over at Choris' house."

Reniko grumbled. "Once I get a team, I can free load off of someone too. You don't have to brag about it like it's a good thing Shikari."

Shikari just chuckled. "When you eat at an Akimichis house, little nii-chan, there is no such thing as 'free loading' only food. Lots, and lots, of food."

Shikamaru gave a small snort. "Well, that's the truth. Chouji does make a mean meal."

Temari frowned. "If I come home and find you've all been living off of Choujis' good well, there will be multiple deaths in this family. And not due to cloud ninja"

"From clogged arteries or from you? Although, it's the same thing when you think about it." Shikamaru asked in a rare cheerful voice.

Reniko and Shikari chuckled as Shikamaru was hit on the head with a very large fan.

**xXx**

Tomorrow was the exams. Tomorrow was the exams. Tomorrow they would all become genins. It was almost too good to be true. Everyone was excited. Except for Nara.

After all, this meant she would be leaving Konoha soon. Of course, she knew she should be happy about this whole thing. But a small part of her would miss Haruna, Udon, Moegi, even Reniko. Maybe Konohamaru, if he ever payed her back that is.

Haruna was absolutely ecstatic about the whole thing. Finally, a genin. It was so impossibly close it was almost hard to breathe. Now all she needed was to have Reniko fail, and it would all be perfect. Maybe even Sarunte would fail too. Then she would become a chuunin, and they would still be acadamy students. It would be amazingly perfect. Yes. Yes it would.

Sarunte seemed to be back to a somewhat normal state. The lack of dirt and torn clothing had helped considerably, but he still had a multitude of visible cuts and bruises.

"Hey Baka, what's up?" Reniko asked fluidly.

Sarunte narrowed his eyes. "Buzz off Neko-kun." He said without missing a beat.

Reniko chuckled. "Glad to see you're back to normal. I thought you might have been in a permanent zombie state."

Sarunte gave him a bit of a reluctant smile. "Heheh, yeah,"

Reniko hesitated for a moment. He really shouldn't be doing this…but…but…Sarunte was his friend after all, and Sarunte obviously needed something to cheer him up.

"Hey, my dad got assigned this top secret mission, wanna hear it?" Reniko asked, already knowing the answer.

Sarunte immediately jumped up excitedly. There were a couple of minutes before class, which gave them plenty of time to talk. "What izzit? Aliens? Dinosaurs? Pirates? Samurais? Death Gods? No! Wait! It has to do with that creepy purple uncle of yours!"

Reniko groaned. "Uncle Kankuro is not- ok, yes, yes he is a freak. But that's not the point. It's something much better."

Sarunte widened his eyes in an almost puppy dog like way. "Whaaaattt? TELL MEEEEE!"

"Ok, apparently, there were all these murders going around town right? Anyway, no one, not even the Hyuugas were able to find them. Then, yesterday , My dad found all of them piled up in a heap, dead, right behind the Korean BBQ restaurant. And here is the best part, the same jutsu they were using to kill the citizens? They were killed by that _exact same jutsu_!"

Reniko expected Sarunte to get excited and jump around, shouting out theories of whatever he thought might have happened. He would have listed off a bunch of suspects, anyone from Jirono-sensei, to the old lady with the lazy eye by the flower store. If Sarunte had done any of this, Reniko would not have been surprised.

But, Sarunte did not do any of that. Instead, the color slowly drained out of his face, and he gulped nervously. He blinked a couple of times, but remained speechless. It almost looked like he was suffocating, in some weird sick way.

Reniko frowned. Usually his stories got great reception from the Uchiha. What was up with him?

"Errr, Anyway, my dad doesn't know who killed them, but I bet it was one of their own, who got greedy or something. I bet they had a lot of money stashed up or something. But, I managed to get a description out of my sister this morning about how the bodies looked. Let me tell you, you would have to be a real sicko to use a jutsu like that."

Sarunte made a weird retching noise. "Can…can we not talk about this?"

Reniko frowned. "Oh come on Sarunte, you love this sort of stuff! What's wrong?"

Sarunte was beginning to sweat. "Nothing. Just. Just Shut Up."

Reniko gaped at him. "Fine. I _will_."

Jirono walked into the room. "Ok, everyone, last day before graduation no, that does not mean it is a free day. We will be working on some more vocabulary, then work on our jutsus after lunch, yes?"

Ignoring the rehearsed groan, Jirono continued his lesson. "Missing nin. What is it? Yes. You. Haruna?"

Haruna beamed. "They are rogue ninja who have severed all ties with their village."

"Good, now, can you name any missing nin?"

"Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha." Haruna said automatically.

Jirono looked at her in surprise. "I don't recall teaching you that."

"Sarunte told me about them." Haruna said pleasantly. "They had this kekkai genkai called the Sharingan that Naro mentioned yesterday. I did some research 'cause I was bored. My dad told me how Itachi had to kill his best friend or something like that to strengthen his Sharingan."

Jirono nodded. "Very true, any other missing nin?"

"Kisame of the Mist" Naro nearly blurted out, wanting to get off topic of the whole Uchiha thing.

Jirono nodded. "Any others, from Konoha?"

"Hey, wasn't Kisame the partner of Itachi?" Haruna asked curiously.

Nara made a mental note to hit her head with a frying pan a couple of times so as to remove any traces of stupidity that decided to make her blurt out such things.

"Well, I know there was Orochimaru" Koru said.

"Good, what do you know about him?" Jirono asked.

"He conducted experiments on shinobi, before leaving Konoha to join the Akatsuki. He later came back and assassinated the third Hokage. Interestingly enough, he is also the reason Uchiha Sasuke became a missing nin, if I am not mistaken."

Jirono gave a quick chuckle. "Yes, indeed, Sarunte why don't you enlighten us some more on this topic hm?"

"WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP ABOUT IT!?" Sarunte screeched standing up.

The class quieted. Outbursts were rare, and they never came from Sarunte. Or at least, never an angry outburst.

Without a second thought, Sarunte jumped in front of his desk, and bolted out the door.

"Sarunte! Sarunte! Come back here!" Jirono yelled. The entire class stood up, talking amongst themselves at such an event.

"What's the big deal?" Naro asked. "I disappear from class all the time." He said with a shrug.

Haruna giggled. "Yeah, but you're never a drama queen about it."

Reniko whipped towards them. "You two!" He hissed. "Shut. The _fuck_. Up. This is none your business!" He roared, before bolting out the door, chasing Sarunte.

Jirono grabbed Reniko. "Wait!" He cried out.

Reniko wrestled his arm away. "I need to go after him! He's my friend!"

Jirono paused. "…fine. You may go, but I am calling the other chuunins to find him."

Reniko nodded. "Yeah, whatever" He said, and he took off.

**xXx**

Reniko raced through the town, going through all of Saruntes' favorite places. The Korean BBQ, Ichirakus Ramen, the practice grounds. Nothing. Where was he?

He racked his brain trying to think of somewhere, _anywhere_ that Sarunte could be. He headed towards the Uchiha grounds.

He stopped himself. Sarunte would not go home, his parents would filet him if they found him. And he wasn't going to be the one to tell Saruntes parents the news…

Going from training ground to training ground, Reniko was about to give up, when he had one last idea.

The Uchiha Monument.

The Uchiha Monument had been built to honor those who had been massacred by Itachi Uchiha. According to his dad, it also served as some sort of double joke, since the massacred clan had really been planning a coup detat.

Sarunte and he had played there a couple of times, and given the fact that the whole Itachi Sasuke discussion, seemed to have started this, it seemed logical.

He was right. Behind the monument, Reniko her a weird hiccupping sniffling noise, and found Sarunte Uchiha curled up into a ball.

"Sarunte" He said hoarsely. "Why'd you run out like that? What's wrong man? C'mon moron, stop crying and tell me what ha--"

Sarunte had sat up and stared directly at Reniko. The sight made Renikos blood turned to ice and the color drained out of his face.

"Is…is that…that…that the…?" He asked in an awkward stutter.

"Yeah." Sarunte said bitterly. And tears began to pour down from his red, spiral, sharingan eyes.

To Be Continued


	11. The Bridge

**Many thanks to Malix2, Lady Rini, Alternative Angel, ???, Rena the pirate jedi wizard, and jgirl1984 for your awesome reviews. That last chapter hit the 4000 word mark, something we are very proud of. Let's see if we can beat it =D…well, not this chapter. This chapter is only about 2000 words or so. We got lazy.**

Reniko felt his world crashing down around him. It was impossible, how could his best friend possibly have the extinct kekkai genkai?

"How…how…?" Reniko sputtered

Sarunte shook his head violently. "I don't KNOW! It…it happened that day I came in late…

I had taken a shortcut behind the Korean BBQ and next thing I know, I was bein' attacked…I…I couldn't even see them; it was like they were invisible or sumthing. I thought I was gonna die, but then, next thing I knew, I could see—everything—I saw their chakra lines, I saw THEM, and it was like everythin' was moving in slow motion.

I tried to hit one of them, but they were still just wind, or…whatever they were…

I saw 'em making hand signs, and I somehow copied them an' next thing I knew…they were all piled on the ground. Dead. Just like that.

An- an now everyone is tryin' to figure out who did it, and how can I explain this crap to the rest of the village? They already hate me cause I'm an Uchiha…if they knew I had the sharingan…

…I just don't know what to do Reni…"

Reniko blinked a couple of times before grasping the full situation. The town had been plagued with paranoia that the Uchihas were going to form another coup de tat. If those paranoid morons found out that the kekkai genkai that caused the massacre to begin with was well alive, all hell would break loose.

"Sarunte…c'mon, you're not evil, if you...you just keep a low profile…" Reniko began shakily.

" s'not just that Reniko. I'm no better than Haruna now." Sarunte said bitterly. "I have a cheat now. I can see your chakra you know. If you did a jutsu right now I could pro'lly copy it. I'll be nutin but a lousy hypocrite. You should hate me for it." He said with a small sniffle.

Reniko felt a sudden surge of annoyance, and gratitude at the same time. Sarunte was more worried about Reniko shunning him and becoming like Haruna then he was about being chased out of the village by an angry mob. That moron, he had no sense of proportion…

"Sarunte. Have you used your sharingan since the incident?" Reniko inquired in a business like tone that he inherited from his father.

Sarunte shook his head. "No, not 'till now anyway…don't even know why it activated, I was jus' so mad I guess…"

"You see?" Reniko said, forcefully jabbing him in his chest. "You're _nothing_ like Haruna. So don't you dare lower yourself to such idiotic midgets like her. Got that?"

Sarunte gave him a watery smile. "Really?"

Reniko nodded. "Yeah"

Saruntes' eyes slowly returned to a dark black, and the Uchiha legacy disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place.

"Thanks Reni-kun. You're the best." He said, and forced himself to stand up. Reniko looked around nervously. Where were those chuunins' that were supposed to be finding Sarunte? You would think they would have found him by now…

As if on cue, three chuunins appeared behind Reniko and Sarunte.

"There you are!" one of them snapped. "You must think you're pretty funny suddenly running out of school like that."

Sarunte gave a half smile. "Hahaha, bad move on my part I guess."

The chuunin motioned for the other two to take Sarunte to class. "I need to talk to Nara here; don't wait up."

The other two nodded and disappeared with Sarunte.

Reniko gulped. "I wasn't skipping class you know. I was trying to help."

The chuunin nodded and lean in closer. "We saw your little sharingan encounter." He mumbled quietly.

"Oh."

The chuunin looked around, almost a bit paranoid, and then looked back at Reniko. "I'm going to have to ask you to report to Tsunade any information you have on Uchiha. Even if he's just an innocent kid, who knows what'll happen if this gets out."

Reniko frowned. This was all way more annoying than it should be. Why couldn't they just accept it and move on. Everything had to be a huge complicated drama. How troublesome.

"Yeah, whatever." He said looking down at the ground in a typical teenager manner.

"I'm serious Nara! You can't tell anyone!" The chuunin hissed.

"Who said I was going to?" Reniko snapped back.

The chuunin paused. "Good. But you still need to report to Lady Tsunade."

Reniko nodded. "Fine." He said, and folded his arms. "I will. Jeez."

**xXx**

The Hokage office was relatively quiet at the moment. No one had thought to inform her or anyone else of a random child suddenly playing hooky. But when the chuunin burst in with Reniko in tow, there were some bad reactions.

The first being Shikamarus. He had taken one look at the situation, and gave one of his rare 'no one will find your body' glares. But he said nothing, and demanded that whatever his idiot son was in for, was not classified enough for his father to hear.

Reniko found himself standing in front of the Hokage, Shizune, Sakura Haruno, and his dad. Talk about pressure.

The chuunin talked first. "A certain Uchiha from the acadamy had ran out of class for no good reason, we tracked him down, but not before this Nara kid found him first. Normally this would not be cause enough to cause such a disturbance Hokage-sama, but I think it's best you know that the Uchiha was seen with the _sharingan_."

Tsunade stood up, Shizune sat down, Sakura and Shikamaru stared at the chuunin like he had grown an extra head. The words sunk in. The sharingan was back.

"Oh kami…" Shizune said breathlessly. "This is bad. The Uchihas won't have a quiet moment for the rest of their lives."

The chuunin nudged Reniko to talk.

"He…uhh…he was the one who killed the cloud ninja." Reniko said slowly. "He accidentally activated it in class…he isn't a killer…" He really had no idea what to say.

Shikamaru gave a bit of an apologetic sigh. He almost would have preferred for Reniko to have done something incredibly stupid. It would have been a lot easier to handle.

"Daisuke Uchiha will not take this well." Sakura said suddenly. "He has been raised as the clan prodigy. We don't need another unnecessary rivalry because of this."

Tsunade closed her eyes. "This is something we need to handle very carefully. His parents will be informed of this, but other than that, I do not want this information leaving these walls. Shinji, who else knows?"

Shinji shrugged. "My team knows. And obviously the dead cloud ninja are well aware."

Shikamaru looked directly at the chuunin. "That may have more truth then you think. If any cloud ninja got away from that incident, they most likely told someone."

Sakura looked questioningly at Tsunade. "What about when he graduates and gets a team?"

Tsunade thought for another moment. "They can be informed as well, but not until Sarunte himself feels comfortable to tell them himself. But other than that, I want absolute secrecy. We will tell his parents, but only to explain the behavior. If anyone reveals this secret to anyone else, I'll treat it as an act against the Village."

Shinji nodded. "Understood Lady Tsunade. I will inform the parents of Uchiha right now." He exited out of the door, leaving Reniko at the mercy of the jounins and the Hokage.

Tsunade turned to Shikamaru. "This is your son right?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes, when he's not being troublesome."

"Take him home for now. I think he's earned the day off."

Shikamaru sighed. "Yeah, alright." He walked to the door. "C'mon Reniko, you've been ordered a day off by the Hokage. That's an oxymoron."

Reniko exited the room silently with his dad, leaving the three medical ninja to discuss any more details on the fate of the Uchiha with the sharingan.

**xXx**

The day of the exams came and everyone was ready (except for poor Yusuke, but this is not about him). Reniko and Sarunte showed up on time and no one would have ever guessed what would have happened the previous night. Sarunte had the same old silly grin he always had, and Reniko would have almost been fooled if it wasn't for the occasionally nervous glance that the Uchiha gave to the mirror, as if to reassure himself his eyes were still black.

Haruna was positively jittering with excitement. It was finally happening she would finally graduate. They called her name, and she entered the room.

It was all fairly basic. Clone jutsu of course, and then some questions and answers. Haruna walked away quite confident, and with good reason. She had passed in one of the highest percentiles. She stepped out of the room triumphantly, brandishing a shiny new headband.

She joined Koru and the others who had graduated, but not before giving a quick 'good luck' to Naro. Naro responded with a thumbs up and a mental congratulations.

Mitsu and Reniko both walked out with their new headbands. Well, Reniko did at least- Mitsu got his old one back.

"Sarunte Uchiha" came the voice of their teacher, and Sarunte went into the room. Unsurprisingly he also walked out with a Konoha headband.

And finally, it was Naros' turn. She walked into the small brown room.

"Ok Naro, clone jutsu." Jirono said without much interest. He mostly wanted to go home and sleep. With all the new genin, he would have a hell of a time with the paper work.

Nara shrugged, and used her shadow clone jutsu, with the result of six clones. Just enough to pass, and not too much to be noticed.

Jirono nodded. "Good Naro, you-"

"Hold it!" cried one of the other teachers. "That was not clone jutsu!"

"True Miyoshi. It was shadow clone jutsu. The sky is also blue. Oh, and you're annoying." Jirono said not bothering to conceal his anger. A person could only explain it so many times before it just redundant.

"We can't pass him if he doesn't do a clone jutsu!" Miyoshi said evenly.

Miyoshi was a huge stickler for the rules. She did everything by the book and refused to let anything deter from that.

Jirono looked at her directly. "Sure, let's fail the genin who knows an A-ranked jutsu versus the Acadamy ranked jutsu. That's not stupid in the slightest."

Miyoshi opened her mouth to protest, but was quickly silenced by the other two chuunins who were also there.

"You pass Naro. Take your headband and scram." Jirono said irritably.

Naro nodded. "Kay!...I mean…uhh…yeah. Sure. Whatever." She said, bringing her voice down an octave.

Jirono said nothing, and Naro took her headband without another word. She could not keep up this boy charade. All she needed to do was fail the genin test and she would be free. How hard could it be to fail a test?

Of course, she would be ruining the hopes and dreams of two other genin students…

Maybe if she was lucky, she would be paired with Reniko and Sarunte…

As she walked out of the room, with her new head band in her hand, she proceeded to be glomped by an excited Haruna.

"YAYAYAYAYAY!" Haruna squealed. "We both passed! This is awesome! Maybe if we're lucky, we'll be on the same teams! How AWESOME would that be?"

"Yeah. Totally awesome" Naro said neutrally. No. It would certainly _not_ be awesome. She would never be able to look herself in the face knowing she let Haruna fail.

Besides, Haruna would most likely be paired with someone who complimented her abilities. Someone without a kekkai genkai. Maybe she would be with Koru or something. That would make sense. Or that kid with the oversized shuriken…or someone. Someone other than her.

Unless…it was like her fathers' team. Where the one with the lowest score was paried with the highest written score and the highest physical score…

…

…

Shit. She should have passed with a better grade.

Relax. Relax. Thirty something students were in this class. The sheer chances of her being partnered with Haruna were next to none. And they would never be stupid enough to partner to people with kekkai genkai right?

…

…

…

…right?

**xXx**

**Team 3:**

_Ketsuki Gyaro_

Reniko Nara

Koru Aburame

Mitsu Gyaro

**Team 9: **

_Sakura Haruno_

Haruna Cataki

Nara Uzumaki

Sarunte Uchiha

**To Be Continued**


	12. Beginning of the End

**Many thanks to jgirl1984, KnightWolfe, Malix2, Lady Rini, Rena the pirate jedi wizard, Alternative Angel, and ??? for all your awesome reviews. As of this update, we broke our record with seven reviews for a chapter. We also are 400 views away from 10,000 views, with our first chapter hitting 3,000 views. And we are also 1 review away from the half way mark of 100 reviews. Ain't statistics a blast?**

Nara filed into the class room for what would most likely -definitely- be the last time. She had put her headband around her waist, in the style of a belt. She didn't want to have to take off her hood just to prove she was wearing Konohas symbol. Besides, she wouldn't be wearing it for much longer anyway.

Haruna was already there, naturally, and had decided to wear her headband bandana style. It looked a bit odd, since Nara was so used to not seeing Haruna wearing any type of headwear in general, but she assumed she would get used to it-

No. No she wouldn't. She was LEAVING remember? Leaving. Because of Itachi. Unless she wanted Haruna, and Konohamaru, and Mitsu to die because of her, she would be leaving. As soon as she failed the genin test.

Reniko and Sarunte were also already there, with Sarunte wearing his headband around his forehead in the traditional matter, and Reniko wearing it around his neck.

Koru was wearing her headband around her arm, and Mitsu was wearing it on his forehead as well. Other then the indicators of graduating from the acadamy, they looked exactly the same. Nara tried to picture any of them as actual genin. Fighting, killing, going on missions. It was almost impossible to fathom, especially with Haruna, who looked more likely to be the one getting killed then do any of the actual killing.

But she _really _shouldn't be thinking of that. After all, it's not like they would be going on any A-ranked missions right off the bat.

Like her father did…

No. No! There would be no need to worry. They would not be facing off of missing nin and Itachi. They would be rescuing cats, and cleaning up trash. Normal genin work. Yup. Normal. Genin. Work.

Oh gosh, when she did leave, would she ever be able to stop thinking about them? She already constantly worried, it could get only worse from this point, especially since life spans of ninjas weren't exactly long.

Well, they will live much, much longer, if she went away. No need to have one of them die an early death because of Itachi. It was for the best, in the end.

Jirono-sensei walked in and, took out the list for the teams. Some people were surprised that they would be teamed up in groups of three. But anyone who had older siblings or parents, or just a general knowledge of shinobi education were less then surprised.

"Reniko…Reniko…Reniko…" Sarunte muttered under his breath with his fingers crossed. He already knew the typical formation. It was usually two guys and a girl, but not necessarily. Usually since there was a higher male to female ratio of shinobi, it made sense. As for a girl…Koru would be pretty cool. She was kind of cute, even with those freakazoid glasses, and she had an awesome clan trait.

"And for team 3…we have Reniko Nara."

Saruntes ears perked up. Come on…say his name…say his name. SAYHISNAME.

"Koru Aburame…"

Yes. Yes. YESSS!

"And Mitsu Gyaro under Ketsuki Gyaro"

"NOO!" Sarunte yelled suddenly. A normal person would have blushed and sat down sheepishly. Sarunte, unfortunately, had no such sensibilities. He instead flipped off Jirono and sat down muttering obscenities.

Reniko shot Sarunte a sympathetic glance. He had been hoping to have Sarunte on his team as well. Especially with the revelation of the sharingan, Sarunte would need a friend in training. He glanced at his two new teammates.

Koru was a creep, but she wasn't to annoying. Unlike a certain pink haired midget.

Mitsu... well, Mitsu was a perverted coot who needed to learn that plants did not have brains. Soon.

"And for team nine, we have Haruna Cataki"

Haruna grinned eagerly.

"Naro Uzumaki"

Naras head hit the desk. Oh. Crap. Haruna, on the other hand, had a completely opposite reaction. She punched the air and grinned triumphantly.

"And Sarunte Uchiha."

"WHAT?"

The cried unison of Sarunte, Haruna, and Reniko perfectly exhibited the disgust at such an idea of this trio.

Sarunte stood up. "Why do I hafta be with the runt and the guy who can't see?"

Naro looked up at this. "I can see." He grumbled.

Sarunte nodded. "Uh-huh. Yeah. Suuuurrreee. No one could see past that hood."

"You have black eyes, black hair, and dark brown skin. And you're wearing your headband on your forehead."

"MY HAIR IS BLUE!!! HAHA!" Sarunte shouted triumphantly.

"It's dark enough to be black." Naro said simply.

Haruna frowned. "There is no way your hair is blue. It's definitely black."

Sarunte frowned, and held up four fingers.

"Oh yeah? How many fingers am I holding up HUH?"

"Four. The thumb, the pointer, the index and the pinky."

Sarunte narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah well-"

"SARUNTE!" Jirono roared. "HARUNA! Sit. Down."

Haruna and Sarunte reluctantly sat down, and resorted to giving each other death glares.

"Now, as I was saying," Jirono continued exasperatedly, "and Sarunte Uchiha under Sakura Haruno. On to team ten!"

Sakura. Sakura Haruno. Nara knew that name. Lady Tsunades' apprentice. Her fathers' other team mate. There had to be a god. And he hated her. Oh right, there was no god, just a very evil hokage. Extremely evil. Evil enough to put Haruna, and Uchiha, and her fathers' old team mate all on the same team as her.

Now what was she going to do? She needed to fail to get her freedom. But…she couldn't do that to Haruna. Haruna had her heart set out on passing and making a name for herself as one of the youngest chuunins…

And she couldn't take that away from Haruna. No. She had to. She simply had to. Another year at the acadamy beat being killed by the Mangyekou sharingan. This was going to be extremely painful.

Not to mention Sarunte. From the few conversations Nara had heard from Sarunte, it was clear that Sarunte had very…aggressive parents. They wanted Sarunte to achieve perfection. And failing the genin test would not help.

And she would meet Sakura Haruno. The kunoichi that her father had loved for a good three years, before moving on to a brotherly sisterly love. She had so many questions for her. What was Naruto like when he was young? Did he really get the bridge named after him in the land of the waves? Did he really defeat the Akatsuki leader single handedly?

…Did Sakura ever like Naruto back at one point?

…Did she ever like Lee back at one point? Dad had said they would have made a good couple, but she had been involved (or as involved as one could get) with Sasuke up until his death, and her father had never stuck around to see who her next love interest was.

No. She would not ask any questions. She would not talk to Sakura at all. Especially about her father. If she did, she might never have the guts to leave.

**xXx**

Lunch came and went, and the worst of it was Haruna and Sarunte giving each other glares of pure hatred. Reniko joined about half way, and Mitsu joined in as well, just for the fun of it. Naro attempted to talk to Koru, but it was pretty clear neither of them were interested in talking to the other.

Class ended, and one by one, the new senseis came to pick up their three man teams.

The first one to walk in was a pink haired jounin. "Team nine." She said slowly.

Haruna was the first one to jump up, and walked over to Sakura-sensei eagerly. Sarunte was quick to follow, and Naro followed at a snails pace.

Sakura lead them out without a single word. She lead them to down one road and up another. She stopped-

At Ichirakus Ramen stand.

Nara felt her heart stop. Why was her new –temporary- sensei, giving them the genin talk HERE?

"Eat up, my treat." She said stiffly. Ayame shook her head. "Oh, no need to worry about the one in the orange hood. He get's free meals."

Naro looked down at his feet. "Didn't that end?"

Ayame shook her head. "You have three days left. I may be a business woman, but I keep my word."

Sarunte immediately ordered ramen with as much pork as possible. Naro ordered a small seafood ramen, Sakura ordered a miso ramen (which, if Nara remembered correctly, was Narutos favorite type of ramen) and Haruna abstained, claiming to not like ramen.

…

Freak…

…

Sakura paused, "So, why don't we start off with everyone telling me their likes and dislikes, and their dreams."

Haruna immediately brightened and instinctively raised her hand, as if it was still class. "Ok, my name is Haruna Cataki, I love…uhhh…winning, miso soup…and uhhh…puppets I guess. I hate morons, stupid people, and people who make fun of me."(here she glared at Sarunte) "And my dream is to make it on chuunin on my first try and become a jounin before age thirteen."

Sakura said nothing, and just nodded. "and you? The Uchiha?"

Sarunte grinned widely. "My name is Sarunte Uchiha, I like Bar-B-que, ramen, dango, udon, donburi, chicken dumplings, sashimi, botamochi…uhh…tako soup…yeah…oh yeah! And playing go with Reniko! I don't like diets, arrogant brats" (here he glared at Haruna) "and evil people I guess. My dream is to be an ANBU and beat my cousin Daisuke in a fair fight."

Sakura nodded. "That's very nice. And you, Nara?"

Nara paused and sighed. Sarunte frowned. "Dude, it's Naro. N-A-R-O"

Sakura looked at Sarunte and smiled. "Funny, the report spelled it with an A."

Sarunte mulled this over for a moment. "Nara…aha…ahahaha…THAT'S RENI-KUNS LAST NAME!"

Nara just groaned. "My name is Nara Uzumaki, I like ramen, helping people, and I guess orange. I dislike bullies. And people convinced that I am blind. My goal…"

"But y'are blind!" Sarunte hissed.

Nara took another slurp of ramen. "Sarunte, I followed you here didn't I?"

"Well...yeah…bu'…Haruna helped you!"

"Haruna was walking in front of you Sarunte."

Sakura took another breath. "Well, I guess I should introduce myself then. I'm Sakura Haruno, I like being a shinobi, my dislikes are none of your business, and any goals I might have, are either achieved or discard, and thus irrelevant."

Kakashi-sensei. That had to have been an at least slightly mirrored speech.

"And, I take it, due to your families, you know that there is only a 30 percent chance of passing."

Haruna and Sarunte nodded, both obviously having been lectured in such knowledge before. Nara didn't nod, but she gave no indication of not knowing. She just continued to slurp down her seafood ramen.

"Well then, your test will be tomorrow in the morning. Don't eat any breakfast. At all. You will just throw up, and trust me, if you throw up, you will be cleaning it up. Bare handed." Sakura said, paying for the ramen, and getting up to leave. "Meet me at the bridge, and be early. I'm talking six here."

With that, she left without a word. Sarunte finished his ramen, shelled out some yen for some more ramen, and continued to eat. Haruna began to head home for some non ramen related food, and Nara headed back to her apartment.

"Wow. Talk about a reunion." Udon mentioned conversationally.

"Shut up Udon." Nara mumbled.

"I couldn't have cut through that tension with a knife." Udon said undaunted. "What are you gonna do with the test huh? You gonna fail your best friend?"

"Just shut u- wait, how did you know it was a reunion." Nara asked suspiciously.

"Gee Uzumaki, there are only so many people related to Naruto with that surname, we were going to figure it out eventually. Or at least, I did. Just told Moegi, but I'm thinking of not telling Kono-kun."

Nara shrugged as she fished for her key to her door. "That's great, but unless you are here to tell me that I can leave the village, for an hour or two so I can get some material for my chakra balls, can you just leave me alone?"

"Nara, I'm here to say goodbye." Udon said solemnly.

Nara blinked in confusion. "Why?"

"Sakura is being put in charge of keeping you in line. She's your jounin teacher after all. Moegi and Konohamaru and I are going to be reassigned. Most likely as body guards to the —well, it's classified." Udon said quickly, stopping himself from dropping the name 'Uchiha'.

For some reason, Tsunade had ordered them to keep a close eye on them. Specifically Saruntes parents and Sarunte. The difference being that Saruntes' parents were well aware and had asked for it. Why was beyond Udon, but it wasn't his place to ask. No matter, he would find out eventually.

"Oh…" Nara paused. "Sorry, I didn't know. Why aren't Moegi and Konohamaru here to tell me goodbye?"

"Technically, you were never supposed to know in the first place, so Moegi thought it would be best to try and not cause a huge fuss. And Kono…well, you know Kono."

Nara smiled. "Ok, I'll miss you guys, make sure you tell Moegi and Konohamaru I said I'll miss them. And make sure you tell Konohamaru who my father was ok?"

Udon smiled back, pushed up his glasses and sniffled. "You can count on me."

Nara didn't know why she was so sad about this. After all, she was planning to leave them all anyway. She shouldn't be sad about this. There was nothing to be sad about. After all, the last time she had a home, there was fire and mass murder involved.

There was absolutely nothing to be sad about.

**xXx**

It was early in the morning, and Haruna, Sarunte, and Nara were all at the bridge on time. And at exactly six am, Sakura walked up to them.

"Well, glad to see all of you came on time." She said coolly. "Follow me, the test is not going to be here."

The three genins did as they were told and followed Haruno without a word. They walked to a clearing, where there were three stumps.

Nara was legitimately interested in what the test was. She had never been interested in her fathers' genin test, except that he got tied to a stump. She had always been much more interested in her mothers' genin test, which involved the three genin having to track down Kurenai-sensei while being attacked by animated trees. It had taken them two hours and it was only after a combination of Hinata using the Byakugan and the extreme precision of Kiba and Shino did they manage to catch her.

Sakura took out two bells. "Two bells. You get a bell from me, you pass. You don't get a bell, you fail. You have a time limit of five hours. No eating. You eat, you fail. Not only that, but you'll get tied to a stump."

Eating. That must have been the reason her father had been tied to a stump. Something wasn't right though. How had all three of them passed with only two bells? Well, Sakura had been on time and clearly was not Kakashi, most likely, she had changed the test to fit her own beliefs.

"Ready…set…now." Sakura said, and she pressed the time, and she latched the bells on her belts. "If you want to get the bells, you better come at me with the intention to kill, or you will never get a bell."

This was perfect. All too perfect. Haruna and Sarunte could pass without her. And she could fail. A two man team seemed a bit odd, but she had heard a couple of stories of people with one student or two. Maybe they would get someone from the ANBU, like that guy who could draw that her father occasionally mentioned…

Sarunte charged. Haruna disappeared, and Nara stood there like an idiot before realizing that the other two acadamy students were fully prepared to get the bells at any means possible.

Sarunte attacked Sakura with a bunch of complicated taijutsu moves that Nara had to admit was very impressive. But Sakura blocked the moves at ease, and a side step had Sarunte trip and fall.

Cursing under his breath, Sarunte made a flurry of hand seals. "Katon!" He roared. Sakura took a step back and looked at him with a mixture of surprise and laughter.

Sarunte took a deap breath, and released a huge fireball. Nara gawked in surprise. It was _huge_. For a split second Nara worried that there was no way to escape that. How could Sakura possibly escape that? But the flames cleared up and no Sakura was to be found. Or bells for that matter.

Sarunte panted. "Cra-ap. Where'd she go?"

All of a sudden, his eyes widened. He took a step back. "Wha—what the-?"

"You're pretty good at taijutsu Sarunte," Sakura said as she appeared behind him.

"But it appears you need to learn the difference between reality and genjutsu."

Sarunte screamed hoarsely before falling unconscious. Sakura turned to Nara. "Well, what are you going to do?"

Nara rushed over to Sarunte. "Save my teammate."

She kneeled next to Sarunte. "Kai" She muttered. Nothing happen. She tried it again. "Release damn it!"

It didn't work.

"So you know how to release genjutsu huh? Pretty good for a genin. But you're just as stupid as the Uchiha over here." Sakura said quietly.

Nara blinked. "What do you mean by that?"

Sakura said nothing. She didn't have to. She was just an illusion after all. Genjutsu had a tendency to do that to a person.

Nara collapsed, and that was that.

Haruna was all that was left. She had been waiting quietly, watching Sakura fight the other two. This was her element right here. She might not be the physical strongest, or the oldest, but she knew how to handle a situation like this.

She saw Sarunte collapse, then Nara was quick to follow. Time for her to shine. She would get _both _bells. She would then give on to Nara, and then Sarunte would FAIL.

She took out some shuriken. She released them at Sakura, before quickly moving to another location, so as not to let Sakura know of her position.

Sakura saw the shuriken, and took a single step backwards to avoid it.

Haruna ran to a bunch of trees on the opposite side of the clearing. Hopefully, that would lose any trai-

Nope. Sakura was right behind her. Activating her Zajigan Haruna turned to Sakura-

Only to fly fifty feet in the air.

Haruna stumbled and stood up. Sakura stared at Haruna. Haruna stared back, attempting to hypnotize Sakura.

_It didn't work_

Haruna widened her eyes in horror. Why wasn't it working? Sakura-sensei should have been keeling over by now. All she was doing was standing there, as if they were engaging in a blinking contest.

"You lack chakra control." Sakura said conversationally. "Without it, any chuunin with proper training can throw off your feeble attempt at hypnosis."

Haruna gulped, and cursed to the extent a ten year old could possibly say.

"Here, let me show you what REAL chakra control can do." Sakura said cheerfully.

She then proceeded to punch the ground.

**xXx**

Nara sat up. She couldn't believe it. She had fallen for simple genjutsu. Why? Because she was too busy being worried about that blockhead Sarunte. Where was he anyway? He must have already recovered. She was going to murder him. This was his entire fault.

She activated her byakugan. Sakura was currently sitting on the three stumps clearly occupied. Haruna and Sarunte…were roughly fifty meters to the left of this. Together. What were they doing?

She raced over to them. Haruna noticed her and brightened. "Nara!" She whispered. "You're finally awake!"

Nara frowned. "How long was I asleep."

Sarunte and Haruna exchanged mixed glances. "Long 'nuff for us to get our asses kicked a bamillion times from here to Suna."

"Two and a half hours. Judging by the sun." Haruna said bluntly.

Sarunte nodded. "Jah. Now we're jus' tryin' to figure out the bes' way to do this. I mean, none of us are strong enough to take that psychotic jounin."

Just like her dad described after all. "Why don't we try working together?" Nara asked finally. "All three of us?"

Sarunte snorted. "Kay, I nominate 'aruna for not takin' the bell."

Haruna narrowed her eyes and clenched her fist. "I nominate the baka who eats too much." She hissed.

Nara waved her hands around frantically. "Whoah, whoah guys. It'll be fine. Look, I'LL not take the bell."

Sarunte and Haruna stared at Nara in dumbfounded awe.

"But…Nara, you're giving up an entire year of being a shinobi! You would have to go back to the acadamy! And you HATE it there!" Haruna sputtered.

Sarunte nodded. "You know Neko-kun will give you hell and back for it. Pro'lly worse than 'aruna too, cuz you can actually do clone jutsu. Or somethin' like it."

Nara shook her head. "It's fine. Besides, you guys have had more formal training then I have had. It's only fair."

Sarunte looked at Haruna. "Sounds good to me." Sarunte finally said.

Haruna looked at Nara, with her eyes wide. "Thanks…" She mumbled.

"So Nara the not blind suicidal genin of Konoha, do ya gotsa' plan?"

Nara nodded, and removed her hood, revealing her blond hair and clearly feminine features. "Just one."

**To Be Continued**


	13. Inescapable Fate

**Thanks to Kaiya Eri Ishikawa, jgirl1984, Malix2, Lady Rini, Alternative Angel, Rat1993, and Rena the pirate jedi wizard for your awesome reviews! We have now hit the ten thousand view mark! Whoohoo! Although, our last chapter only got 73 hits, so make of that what you will.**

"You're…you're a…you're a _girl_!" Sarunte half screeched. "GIRL!" He cried again waving his arms for emphasis.

Nara put her hands on her hips. "Really, was it that hard to figure it out? I must have made a thousand slip ups. I mean, Mitsu thought I was gay for crying out loud."

Sarunte shrugged. "Mitsu is a cloud cuckoo lander. He also thinks plants have feelings and he has no depth perception."

"I knew she was a girl." Haruna mumbled. "I figured it out ages ago." Whether she was lying, telling the truth, or somewhere in between, Nara didn't know, and Haruna wasn't planning on letting on how much she had, or had not, been fooled.

Something was bothering Nara. She had a plan, a rather good one, but something just didn't sit right with her. She knew there was something about this test. Some sort of hidden meaning. Something. Why had she chosen this story of all the others to ignore and forget? WHY? Did Kami hate her or something? What had she done to offend him?

It was nothing. Nothing. Just her nerves getting the better of her. There was no hidden meaning. It's not like Kakashi, tactical genius and former ANBU member could have devised a hidden meaning…

…Yeah, right, and Sarunte was the reincarnation of Sasuke, complete with sharingan and chidori. Right. There had to be something…

"Oi, wait, that's the Byakugan ain't it?" Sarunte said suddenly, interrupting Naras musings.

Nara nodded. "Yeah…yeah it is."

Sarunte crowed in victory. "HAH! I knew no normal person could see from behind that hood! I knew it! I KNEW IT!"

Nara rolled her eyes. "Honestly, do you know how much chakra it would take to keep my kekkai genkai going all day? I'd drop dead from exhaustion."

Sarunte frowned. "Well…yeah…but…uhhhhm…hmmm…" He disappeared in thought. Unlimited chakra…unlimited chakra…how would she have unlimited or close to it chakra?

"You feed off of other peoples chakra?" Sarunte shot out.

Haruna rolled her eyes. "Sarunte, shut up. If I'm going to spend the rest of my time as a genin, with you, then you better learn to stop talking."

Sarunte gave her a rude hand gesture. "And you better learn to use transformation jutsu properly, if you know what I mean," He hissed.

Haruna paled, and her eyes turned a violent purple. Zajigan. Sarunte paled for a moment. He didn't know what to be more scared of. Him falling under the spell of the Zajigan, or him reacting and accidentally activating his sharingan.

Luckily, Nara stood in between them. "Guys, stop it! You are all shinobi of Konoha! You don't fight each other! We're all on the same side here."

Sarunte and Haruna looked at each other sheepishly.

"I'll stop if he stops." Haruna said simply.

"Me? You started it runt!"

"Did not."

"Did too."

"GUYS!" Nara yelled in a harsh whisper. "We. Need. To. Work. Together."

Sarunte narrowed his eyes. "I'm not working wit' her. 'sides she makes my blood crawl."

Haruna crossed her arms. "He's a jerk. I hate him.'

Nara felt her veins pulsate. "Sarunte, Haruna, if you don't cooperate, you will both fail. You will repeat another year at the genin acadamy. Together. Haruna, you will be force to admit you are not ready to be a genin like the thirteen year olds, and Sarunte, well, I don't know much about your situation, but I'm certainly glad I'm not the one giving your parents the news of why their son failed a simple little bell test."

Sarunte and Haruna stared at the ground , in a mutual embarrassed silence.

"I mean, my _father_ passed, and he was dead last in his class. He passed with a girl who couldn't fight to save her life, and a self centered idiot who refused to be upstaged by anyone. They passed the bell test. The same one we're taking. Do you honestly want to admit that you failed a test that they passed?"

Well, it was most likely a different test. After all, all three of them had passed that test. And in this one, this one only two would pass.

Wait…

How did that work? How could only two people pass and still form a genin team? That didn't make sense. She was missing something here. What was it? Would Sakura sensei promote all three of them?

No, that would be stupid. Why would she pass all three when only two could get the bell? It made no sense, it was like allowing someone who failed to still pass, just because his friends passed. This had to be a different test…

"So…ya said somethin' 'bout a plan Nara?" Sarunte finally asked.

**xXx**

Sakura was bored, to say the least. She had given them way too much time. She had specifically given them this test so they could fail it. She disliked the idea of Nara staying in the village against her will. No matter how much she didn't want that child to go into the world alone with only a bunch of rogue ninja, if she honestly didn't want to stay here, it wasn't her right to stop her.

She just hoped that Naruto had told her the story of the bell test.

She felt a bit sorry for the other two. The Uchiha and the Cataki.

The Uchiha, he was the one with the sharingan. The friend of Shikamarus kid. She felt sorry for him. He was so unlike the rest of the clan. What had been pride for the others, turned into cockiness and rashness for Sarunte. In many ways, he was a lot like Naruto, in other ways, not so much. He was still raised in the typical Uchiha manner after all.

His parents would be absolutely ashamed of course. The Uchihas were still not perfectly in sync with the rest of Konoha. They wanted to try and get as many of their ranks into high ranking positions, in order to prove that even with power, they wouldn't automatically pull a coup d'état .

Unfortunately, everyone who thought that did everything possible to make sure they didn't get into high powers. It was a vicious cycle really. And with one prodigy, Daisuke, the other Uchihas wanted to raise their children to be as strong as him.

It was a huge competition, and the children were the casualties. No doubt if…when…Sarunte failed, He would be getting a 'you have shamed our clan' speech.

Haruna was a bit luckier in the matter. The Cataki clan was young and fairly small, and held no clan pride like the Uchihas and the Hyuugas. But Haruna herself would be crushed. She was only ten after all, and not used to complete failure.

What was Tsunade thinking putting three kekkai genkai on one team anyway? Well, alright two. When they had made the teams, Sarunte hadn't activated his sharingan yet…

What the-

Naruto.

Across the field, staring at her, was Naruto.

Well, Narutos sexy jutsu. In clothing.

An odd white sleeveless shirt, dark black shorts, and a white skirt with the sides cut out. The Konoha head band on her waist.

It was entirely Naruto as a girl-

Except the eyes. Hyuuga eyes. Why-

Oh _shit_-

It was too late, hand signs away, Nara used her kage bunshin no jutsu.

Then she disappeared. Transparency jutsu.

Then Sakura felt an upsurge of chakra. She was activating her byakugan. A deadly combo.

Thankfully, the transparency jutsu was imperfect. No one could really make themselves entirely unseen. Jiraiya, the maker of such a jutsu, had been caught many times before when he had been unlucky enough to spy on a shinobi.

Listening carefully, Sakura aimed for each clone, and punched each of them out one by one.

Then an array of weapons came out, from Sarunte.

This was significant, because Sarunte chose to cloak the weapons with _fire_.

Sakura used a substitution jutsu. She was impressed. They were working somewhat together. Naturally the attacks were spate, but the fact was, she was meant to be occupied by Nara while Sarunte attacked.

But, she was a Jounin. You needed to do better than that to distract her.

Haruna appeared in front of her. Nara most likely found her in the trees and pointed in her direction…

She had the Zajigan activated. Sakura smirked. "Didn't I just tell you that wasn't going to work?"

It wasn't really Haruna though. Transformation jutsu. Sakura decided to play along, she wanted to see what Haruna really Nara was planning on doing.

Haruna (Nara) reached into her pocket and retrieved some odd looking balls. Sakrua recognized them from the bag that Tsunade had confiscated back when Nara was only the last name of Shikamaru.

She through it and to Sakuras surprise, an explosion of chakra came out of it accompanied with a cloud of smoke.

Naras chakra balls had been her main way to fight for a long time. She used them to escape from enemies, in order to conserve her chakra, and make quick getaways.

Sakura took a step back, and was confronted with Sarunte and the real Haruna. They were all holding those odd chakra balls. They dropped them, and instead of smoke, ice came out.

It was very slippery. For the genin. Sakura merely applied some chakra to her feet and she was fine. Nara was fine too, but Sarunte and Haruna began to struggle to stay standing.

Sarunte started making his hand signs. " Smoke release" He roared, and breathed out a haze of smoke.

Sakura blinked. Behind her, Nara activated her Byakugan and took out some kunais. Sakura turned around to take care of Uzumaki-

But she stopped with the tinkling of bells.

The smoke cleared, Haruna stood up on a branch grinning hugely, with two bells. She cast a longing look at Nara, before throwing the bell in Saruntes' direction

Sarunte caught it and gave a crow of victory. "YES! YES! YES!"

Sakura turned to the two of them. "So, you two choose to pass then? Even at the cost of letting Nara fail?"

Haruna bit her lip. Sarunte looked down at the ground.

"I chose to let them take the bells." Nara said quickly. "We discussed it before, and I volunteered."

Haruna shook her head, and outstretched her hand. "Nara take my bell, I can't do this, knowing that you're going to fail."

Nara gulped. "No Haruna, it's fine, really, I'm totally fine with failing."

Haruna shook her head again. "But I can't Nara, you take it" She forced the bell into Naras hand, before smirking.

Sakura nodded. "Congratulations. You all pass."

Haruna shot her hand in the air. "I knew it. _I knew it_. Teamwork! That was it wasn't it?"

Team…work…?

No.

No.

Nara did a face fault. THAT WAS THE SECRET TO THE TEST? How had she missed that? Shit shit shit SHIT! It was right in front of her the entire time. Why else had her father cited team work over everything else? Kakashi valued team work over everything else. How had she missed that?

Because she had gotten so used to that idea, it had simply become a part of her. She had seen no reason to actually learn about team work. It was like teaching someone to breathe, or to eat. It had been so obvious, she had missed it.

"You were this close to failing." Sakura said conversationally. "If Haruna hadn't given up her bell and given it to Nara, I would have failed you."

Sarunte blinked in confusion. "Huh? Whyzzat?

"Teamwork, as she pointed out, was the key to this. Even working together, it was entirely possible for you all to be waiting for the perfect time to double cross each other. So in the end, the person who did get the bells, had to show she or he was ready to give them up for his team."

Haruna smirked arrogantly. She had figured it out. She knew there was something wrong with this test. No way would a team of two be allowed.

"Isn't this great Nara? We all passed!" Haruna cried out cheerfully.

Sarunte looked around. "Uhhh…can we start training tomorrow? I'm STARVING!"

Sakura gave a nod. "You guys can have the rest of the day off."

Nara bit her lip. It wasn't fair. She had been so close to failing and leaving Konoha forever. This was all Tsunades' fault. She had assigned the teams; she knew that Sakura would have made sure she would pass. She was going to have a word with the Hokage.

**xXx**

"Tsunade-baachan!" Nara yelled bursting her way through the doors. It was easy enough to get pass everyone with her transparency jutsu and shadow clones.

Tsunade rubbed her temples. "Hello Nara, I would say it's a pleasure to see you again, but it's not. Get out. You're not supposed to be here. Shouldn't you be saving some cat or weeding some garden right now?"

"You set me up!" Nara cried out.

Tsunade stood up. "What did you say?" She asked threateningly.

"You set me up so I couldn't fail! You purposely assigned me to Sakura, and made it so-"

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE." Tsunade cut her off, murder in her eyes. "I have given you favor after favor. I tolerated your insolent behavior at the acadamy, and I gave you every chance in the world to leave Konoha. You just missed your second chance by your own stupidity. Sakura _wanted _you to fail."

Nara blinked in confusion. "She…she did?"

"Why do you think she gave you the exact same test that she had been given? So you could exploit it, and play Haruna and Sarunte against each other until the timer rang or someone ate food! You knew everything else! You knew who Shino was, you knew about the Nara family, you knew Narutos nickname for me, you obviously recognized Konohamaru and his team- this is all your own fault, and blaming me isn't going to help anyone!"

Nara looked down and pushed her two forefingers together. Granny Tsunade was right. She was being irrational. "Sorry," She mumbled.

Tsunade sat back down in triumph. "You should be. Now go, I have paper work to not do, and you have training to do. After all, that's the only way you will pass the chuunin exams."

Nara nodded, and she turned to go. "Oh, Tsunade-baachan?"

"Yes?"

"Even if I did know the meaning behind the test, I think I still would have passed. I…I don't think I could have let Haruna fail."

**xXx**

Reniko dove into his meat with much enjoyment. _He_ had _passed_. He _had_ passed. He was now an official genin. The test had been somewhat hard, but nothing a genius, a plant lover, and a logical bug freak couldn't overcome.

Sarunte entered the Korean bar-b-que, and when noticing that Reniko was already there, he rushed over and crashed into the chair with marvelous results.

"RENIKO!!! Reniko!!!!"

"Hey Sarunte! I passed!" Reniko said cheerfully.

"I…I passed too, but. That's. Not. The. Point." Sarunte said between gasps, and grabbing a pair of chopsticks to freeload off of Renikos food.

Reniko raised an eyebrow. "Then what? It's not about your…eye…thing…is it?" He asked in a hushed tone.

Sarunte shook his head. "No…no…Naro…" He took a bite of food "Naro…is Nara…and he. Is. A. GIRL!"

Reniko winced. "Dude, your spraying food everywhere."

Sarunte flailed his arms. "I'M SERIOUS!!! HE'S A SHE!! AND A HYUUGA!!! AND SHE'S GOT BLONDE HIAR AND SHE LOOKS LIKE A GIRL TOO!!!"

Reniko stared at him. "Naro. A girl. Did you snort something on your way here or did you just hit an all time low IQ?"

Just then, Haruna and the newly de hoodified Nara walked in talking cheerfully.

"OI!! NARA!! TELL HIM!! TELL HIM YOU'RE A GIRL!!" Sarunte roared.

Nara rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'm a girl." She tugged on her pigtails a bit. "Obviously."

Reniko turned a bright scarlet red. He kept staring at Nara. For the love of kami…he was a girl! A cute girl! And not ugly, like Naro should have been!

Nara got closer to Sarunte. "But could you keep the thing about being a Hyuuga down?"

She pointed to her eyes, which were now a bright blue. She had used a transformation jutsu to change them as soon as she decided to stop wearing the hood. Her whisker marks were also gone because of it.

Sarunte nodded. "Got it. Ya can count on me."

Haruna rolled her eyes. "C'mon Nara, let's go."

Nara smiled, "Haruna, Saruntes our team mate now, we can at least try and be nice to him."

Haruna scoffed. "Well, fine, but not Reniko. He's not part of our team. He's just a jerk."

Reniko said nothing, and glared at her evilly.

Sarunte ordered another serving of food, and scooted over to let Nara and Haruna sit next to him. "Alright, you can eat with us, jus' don't eat too much. The food is mine."

"Eh-hem." Reniko coughed.

"I mean Renikos. Renikos food. Reni…Reni-kun…Neko-kun…" Sarunte grinned hugely.

Reniko sighed before getting up, "Eh, help yourself, you know that I have a free tab at this place anyway." He got up to leave. "But I have a mom and a dad and a sister to confront. Later Sarunte. Nar…Nara…runt."

He left without another word. His face still a bright red. Naro. Nara. Naro. Nara. He would never lok at his last name the same way again…

**xXx**

"But…I…you…and…we….but…he…with…and the….HYEH?" Konohamaru stuttered.

Udon nodded. "Yep. Uzumaki all the way. You should see her without the hood. Spitting image of Narutos sexy jutsu. Except the eyes, being a Hyuuga and all."

Moegi giggled. "Konohamaru-kun, it was a bit obvious when you think about it…"

Konohamaru sat down quietly. "I think…I think I'm going to just not move for a couple of days. If I learn anything else, my brain is going to explode. Nara…Uzumaki…Uzumaki…Nara…it just…HYEH…"

And with a groan, he collapsed on the ground, and proceeded to stare at the ceiling for six hours.

**To Be Continued**


	14. Revenge and the Water

**We're baaaaack! And with twelve thousand views. That's a two thousand view increase. Whoot! Our first four chapters also all have at least one thousand views each, and our fifth chapter seems to be coming along that way soon. Thanks to Kaiya Eri Ishikawa, Malix2, snobunniex3, Rena the pirate jedi wizard, Lady Rini, Alternative Angel, and Ratt1993! You guys are all awesome and we hope you are all planning on sticking around for the next chapter!**

The days of a genin were quiet and predictable. And boring. Downright boring. If Nara had to pull out one more weed, or pick out one more discarded tin out of the river, she would throw a fit. And those _damn cats_. Did the people of Konoha have ANY respect for their pets? At the rate they ran away, Nara half suspected some sort of underground organization that experimented on cats. And why hadn't they been freaking declawed yet? Nara could easily count five different instances, with five different cats, where she went home with enough scratches to scar an army.

When they weren't doing lower class missions, Sakura had them practice basic taijutsu. It wasn't as bad as it could have been for Sarunte and Nara, but poor Haruna, despite being in excellent physical shape for being only ten years old, simply couldn't keep up. The last group of weeks had been hard on her, and the jeers from Reniko were not helping. Sarunte had become slightly nicer, but only slightly. His niceness to Haruna was in direct relation to the proximity of Reniko. The closer Reniko was, the meaner Sarunte would be.

Sometimes, Nara suspected that Sakura had in fact married Lee, and he had given her a couple of lessons in determination. There was simply no conceivable way that this could have been the same Sakura that her father had told her about. That Sakura was violent sure, but…but not this. She was tough for sure, but not violent. She was almost distant to a degree. It only occurred to Nara after a week of missions that they knew _nothing_ about their new sensei.

That wasn't to say for lack of trying. Once she had received this enlightenment, Nara had tried to strike up several conversations with Sakura-sensei. On good days she would receive a 'that's not important at the moment, focus on your training'. On bad days she would receive a harshly worded 'That's MY business. Not YOURS' and something a look that clearly meant she was repressing the temptation to hit her.

As the days slowly passed into monotony, Nara would occasionally have instances where she just slowly forgot everything. It never lasted, but sometimes she would forget she was the Kyuubi container, and that there was a mad man with the sharingan after her. Sometimes she would forget Saruntes' heritage, or that Sakura-sensei once knew her father. But it would never last. After the mission, the meal, or the infinite laps around the track _on her hands_, Nara would remember again, and lose any happiness or satisfaction she might have gotten from a hard day's work.

Finally, after almost two weeks of doing nothing but D rank missions, Haruna confronted Nara about something.

"Hey, Nara, can I ask you something?"

Nara shrugged nursing her newly received cat wounds. "Sure, go ahead."

"Can you teach me how to do that?"

Nara blinked in utter confusion. "Do what? Rescue a cat from drowning?"

Haruna shook her head violently. "No…no…that…jutsu you did…"

"The invisibility jutsu?" Nara asked, not any less confused.

"No…when you walked on the water! _That_ jutsu!" Haruna exclaimed. "Do you know how well controlled your chakra would have to be to do that? You have to teach me! Then Reniko can't taunt me about it anymore!"

Sarunte had described the bell test to Reniko in extreme detail. He had found the epic Zajigan failure to be _hilarious_ and had been giving Haruna flak about it for days now.

Nara had completely forgotten about that. She had used the walk on water jutsu so much; it had become second nature to her. It had been a natural graduation to it after the climb on trees jutsu. She might have never learned the multiple ninja rules that they were quizzed on, or the substitution jutsu when she was living with her parents, but they had taught her how to concentrate her chakra on her feet.

Nara nodded. "Sure Haruna, I'll teach you how to walk on water, no problem."

Haruna jumped up eagerly. "Really? Thanks Nara! That'd be awesome. Meet me after today's missions at my house! O.k.?"

Nara nodded as her wounds were finally healed away completely and she got up. "Yeah sure, that sounds fine. I'll be there."

**xXx**

The Cataki compound was absolutely dwarfed by the sheer size of the Hyuuga and Uchiha compounds, but by no means was it small. There was a nice amount of land in between the houses, and the houses themselves were semi grand in nature. Compared to the apartment Nara had, they were huge.

She got some weird looks from some of the Cataki clan members, and Nara was half surprised to see they all had the same pale blue eyes. Their hair was either a dark pink, or a pale red. It struck Nara as almost funny, to see plenty of people who looked so similar to her team mate.

Haruna bounded over from one of the houses. "Hey Nara!" She said breathlessly. When the other Catakis saw that the strange blonde was a guest of the young kunoichi, they quickly lost interest, and went about their business.

Haruna dragged Nara into her house, which was light and airy. There were many windows, perhaps to let in as much light as possible. It was certainly an optimistic place to grow up in.

A tall man with pale blue eyes and dark pink hair in a ponytail stood at one of the doorways. At his side was a young woman with bobbed light red hair and the same blue eyes. Nara briefly wondered the unfortunate implications of parents clearly from the same clan. Although, her mother had mentioned that the Hyuugas usually intermarried as well, although they usually married something along the lines of a mothers-sisters-husbands-brothers-wifes-kid variety, so Nara didn't see any problems with what was most likely the same scenario here.

"So you're the girl who's been causing the ruckus with the Hokage." The father replied dryly, but clearly not maliciously.

Nara pushed her forefingers together. "Haha, something like that. I didn't think that Granny Tsunade had minded that much."

Harunas father tilted his head. He gave what looked to be a half smile, before retreating back to a closed room with his wife, who mouthed a time limit to Haruna, before retreating with her husband.

Haruna looked at Nara in wonder. "Granny Tsunade?" She asked incredulously.

Nara shrugged. "Granny Tsunade, Tsunade-baachan, it's just my nickname for her. My father called her the same thing."

"But she's the Hokage-sama! You can't do that!" Haruna said in astonishment.

Nara shrugged again. "My dad did, and Tsunade-baachan never told me to stop."

Haruna just shook her head in amazement, before redirecting Nara outside. "There's a pond a bit back, it's small but it will work."

Nara shook her head. "That's advanced. You're just beginning. First thing we need are some nice tall trees."

Haruna was confused once again, but complied by walking to a nice, tall, tree.

Nara nodded in improvement. "Good. This'll work. Now you have to climb it."

Haruna raised her eyebrow in question. "You're joking right?"

Nara shook her head. "Climb it _without_ using your hands."

Haruna gaped at her in shock. "How can you do that?"

Nara smiled and proceeded to do as instructed. Focusing her chakra on her feet, she effortlessly walked up the tree. "Like that." She replied simply. "All you have to do is focus your chakra on your feet."

Haruna bit her lip. She was so tempted to just use her Zajigan, but the fact that it didn't work on her sensei was why she was here in the first place. She couldn't take shortcuts this time around.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she focused all of her chakra at her feet. She took a step into the tree-

And the bark gave way and part of the tree as well, causing Haruna to fall back.

She fell flat on her back, muttering made up words.

Nara landed on the ground. "To little chakra and you don't stay stuck, too much, and you break the tree." She withdrew a kunai from her ever handy bag. "Here, use this to mark your progress."

Haruna groaned as she sat up. "I feel so stupid. I don't usually mess up that badly" She grumbled.

Nara smiled nicely. "Don't worry," She said comfortingly. "You did better than my first time. My first time, I ran _into_ the tree."

Haruna giggled. "Really?"

Nara nodded.

Haruna got back up, determined to try again, and Nara didn't have the heart to tell her that while it was true she had run into the tree, she had been three at the time, and it was probably the first jutsu she had ever learned.

The afternoon passed, and soon Nara had to leave to get some sleep. Haruna stayed behind practicing and practicing. Bit by bit, the notches got higher and higher. At first it had only been a couple of inches higher than her arm reach, then those couple of inches became a couple of feet, then it became nearly twice as high as her, then it began to reach to first branches of the tree.

**xXx**

The next day, after a mission involving finding a dog (it was a wonderful change; it was immediately solved by Saruntes genius involving some very well placed bacon), Nara headed back to the Cataki compound with Haruna.

Haruna didn't waste time to show her progress. A quarter way up the tree she had gotten. The progress started all over again, with Nara bringing up helpful pointers and hints.

Three days later, Haruna had reached the top of the tree.

The day afterwards, Haruna could fully stand upside down and sideways on the trunk and on any of the branches. She was so incredibly light that even some of the twig like branches supported her weight.

The next day, it was time to start on the water. Haruna picked on it a lot more quickly, but it still took her almost three days before she could do it without falling.

On the fourth day of walking on water, Haruna ran around effortlessly in sheer joy. She had done it. She had succeeded. She practically felt herself getting stronger. Take that Reniko! Take that Sarunte! Take that Sakura (sensei)!

Nara smiled and congratulated her. Training someone was harder then it looked, and she was plumb exhausted oddly enough. She waved Haruna goodbye a couple of hours earlier then the norm, intending to catch up on some much needed private training.

But Haruna wasn't finished. After Nara left she had one goal, and one goal only. Make a fool out of Reniko. She raced over to the Nara household, it was currently 6pm, definitely early enough for a challenge…

She knocked furiously on Renikos door.

It was answer by a girl with two low dark pigtails. "Who are you?" She asked annoyed.

"I'm looking for Reniko" Haruna said breathlessly.

The girl looked at Haruna for a couple of seconds. "Aren't you a bit young to be dating my brother?"

Haruna turned a bright red. "I'm not dating him. He's my _rival_."

The girl shrugged. "Oh. Isn't he a bit stupid to be a rival?"

Haruna nodded. "Yeah, he is, that's why I'm here, to show him that I'm better than him."

The girl shrugged. "I wish you luck pinkie." She turned to the inside of the house. "OI! RENI! COME DOWN HERE!"

"AGH! WHAAAT? Troublesome sister, I was-" He came to a complete stop when he noticed the pink haired runt at his door.

"What are you doing here runt?" He asked coldly.

"I'm challenging you, that's what I'm doing!"

Reniko rolled his eyes. "Why would I want to fight you? So you can use your Zajigan and brag about how you cheated?"

Haruna stomped her foot indignantly. "NO! Not a fight! A challenge! There's a big difference. You say I can't do any jutsus right?"

Reniko nodded. "Don't think. Know. Is this going to take much longer? Ketsuki-sensei has us getting up really early tomorrow and I don't wanna be tired like last time."

Haruna shook her head violently. "Just come with me to the hot springs. I bet I can use a jutsu that not only has nothing to do with my Zajigan, but one that you can't do."

Reniko narrowed his eyes. It was on. "Bring it runt. Let me get my sandals on, and we'll go."

**xXx**

Haruna, Reniko, and his older sister (who was called Shikari apparently) were all gathered at the hot springs.

Shikari was there for one reason only, to watch her brother fall flat on his face because of a girl who was at least four years young then him and a full two heads shorter than him.

If he won, then Shikari would congratulate him…on beating up someone akin to a toddler. Real talent there…

Either way, it was a win win situation. Shikari was happy.

Haruna smiled widely, and after a moment of concentration, stepped on the water. She smirked, as she took another step, and just to purely show off, did a cart wheel.

Shikari stifled a smirk. This was over. Reniko hadn't been taught chakra control yet. This shorty was smart. Not many people would be brilliant enough to choose the hot springs for a challenge, without worrying about sending off the wrong message.

Reniko gulped. Shit. Shit. SHIT! He couldn't do that! How'd she learn!?!

No, he had to calm down. If this was Haruna doing the jutsu, it had to be incredibly simple. Calm down…o.k.

She was obviously using her chakra on her feet to keep her up, that much was obvious. Time to try it out.

Reniko shut his eyes and clenched his teeth as he focused his chakra on the water. He took one step- so far so good. He took another, and proceeded to fall straight into the water. The boiling hot water. He jumped out, cursing and raging and quite humiliated.

Haruna stuck her tongue out and gave him a rude hand gesture that they had used on her many times. "I think I win Neko-baka."

Reniko sat at the water's edge, yelling obscenities. How was this fair? The girl who never had to work for anything in her life, was now better than him at some awesome jutsu. Who taught her that jutsu and why hadn't they been lynched? He had been working his ass off to prove himself, and here she came along with her arrogant smiles and stupid kekkai genkai acting like she was graced by Kami himself.

His pride damaged, Reniko finally calmed down enough to walk quietly home. He attempted to block out Shikaris jabs at the loss, but it was futile. He would get stronger, he would ask Ketsuki-sensei about a walking on water jutsu tomorrow, and next time they faced each other, there would be hell to pay. He could guarantee it.

Haruna didn't care about revenge of any sort, she had finally done what she had wanted to do for all these years, beat Reniko at his own game. She was happy.

**xXx**

Sakura groaned from her warm bed. Knocking. At the door. She despised knocking. It was waking her up. If it was pranksters or her genin with some petty problem there would be murder…

No, the chakra was too strong-

Really, really strong. Sakura opened the door to reveal a masked ANBU.

"Sakura, your presence is required by the Hokage."

Sakura nodded. "Hai. May I ask what before I go?"

The ANBU nodded. "You need to get your genin too after the briefing. This will be their first B ranked mission and you need to make sure they are ready."

Sakura blinked in astonishment. "B ranked? Like hell they are ready! What could be so urgent that it needs me?"

The ANBU looked sheepishly at the ground (although Sakura couldn't tell with the mask covering his eyes). "It's Sunagakure. The Kazekage is dying."

**To Be Continued**


	15. Kankuro and the Genin

**FINALLY! Regents are over and summer has finally shown its face, leaving us free to write up another chapter of Written in Code! Did you miss us? We missed you guys! Thanks to Lady Rini, Rena, ShinShu, Ratt1993 and Alternative Angel for reviewing. Lots of Gaara fans apparently. Don't worry, Gaara isn't dead…yet… Anywho, we got fourteen thousand views, so that was an accomplishment. And we'll stop delaying the process and get this whole shebang started.**

Sakura was standing in front of Lady Hokage, with her adrenaline keeping her wide awake despite it being quite late (or should she say early?). The ninja lifestyle tended to have that effect on many shinobi, and Sakura remembered with brief amusement how she used to complain about Kakashi-sensei's schedule, and now she was easily waking up two to three hours earlier at least.

She was briefed on her mission. There had been an assassination attempt on the Kazekage. He had been quickly taken care of by said target and a group of highly talented sand ninja, but not before taking himself down and releasing a pouch of dust that exploded all over the place.

The Kazekage's office had been quarantined as one by one everyone who had been present at the time suffered from symptoms ranging from pale skin and blisters all over the body, and greenish pus oozing from said blisters. Not even the best of the medic nins could pinpoint what the problem was, and any attempt to study the dust in the pouch had only resulted in more sick victims. Facing a potential pandemic, the Sand decided to call for one of the greatest medical ninjas in the world- Haruno Sakura. Tsunade had been their first choice, but she was the Hokage and Tsunade herself had stated that she had felt Sakura had surpassed her long ago. Whether this was true or not was open to debate.

Sakura would be travelling with her genin team and Temari who insisted on going. Kiba's team of Shikari, Chori, and Inote also wished to go, but Tsunade put her foot down, and instead assigned them to a more diplomatic mission of heading to the Village hidden in the Mist where the assassin was thought to originate from.

Sakura accepted the mission without hesitation, but bringing her team was questionable. "Tsunade-sama, this is easily a B or A ranked mission, wouldn't it be better if my team stayed behind?"

Tsunade paused a moment at this. "No. They were all fairly well scoring students at the acadamy, and more importantly, if they don't get experience now, they'll go on some dangerous mission later. If I've heard correctly, you had already taken down Zabuza by this time."

Sakura tried to explain how the situations had been different. They hadn't known that there had been some mafia-esque man after Tazuna.

"Really Sakura, you're going to look for a cure, the tracking of the assassin's goals and whereabouts and allies are not up to you. Most likely your team will be bored out of their minds."

Sakura sighed in agreement. Besides, she could use them for grunt work, like finding specific tools and the like. Besides, they could use a taste of travelling through the desert. Plenty of heat, sandstorms, and scorpions to scare them straight for a while.

**xXx**

Waking up to Sakura-sensei was not what Sarunte was hoping for when he had fallen asleep last night. What time was it? It was like one or two or something!

Then he heard the news. They were going on an _A ranked mission_. Words could not describe the joy that Sarunte felt. He bounded out of bed and grabbed the nearest clean looking shirt he could fine and practically leapt at his shuriken holster as he rushed to get ready.

With Sakura-sensei, Sarunte walked out into the dimly lit street, and they headed for the Cataki compound. Haruna was just as excited at the news, and cited something about going on an important mission before Reniko. She was ready faster than Sarunte, and with a quick embarrassing encounter from her parents, the trio headed for Nara's apartment.

After brief wonderings of why Nara wasn't living in the Hyuuga compound, they knocked on the door, and were a bit surprised to find Nara wide awake and fully clothed. She grew just as excited at the idea of the mission and disappeared briefly to grab her hoodie and bag.

They met Temari at the gate who had previously waved her daughter off before waiting for Sakura. "You sure they should be coming?" She asked questionably, referring to the three genin.

Sakura nodded. "Hokage orders. Besides, they could use a slice of real life to combat their naïve optimism."

Temari snorted, and they took off without another word. It would take three days to get to Sunagakure. It didn't take long for the magnitude of this time to sink in. Soldier pills weren't as filling as one would hope, and as the temperature started to rise, the trio found themselves reacting to the heat quite differently.

Nara was quite used to different climates and even if the growing heat had bothered her, she made no statement that would indicate so.

Sarunte suddenly grew thankful for where his parents came from. His dark skin now seemed to have a reason to exist, as while he was not used to the temperatures, he was only minorly annoyed by it. He would have used this time to make fun of Haruna, but the determination in his sensei's and best friend's mother's eyes said that it was best not to fool around.

Haruna received the brunt of the temperature change. Relatively pale and living her entire life in the nice cool village and cooled Cataki compounds, the long sleeves of her jacket did not help matters. It was half way through the day when the forest became more and more sparse, and was soon replaced by sand and desert. By this point, Haruna's face had turned a light red, almost as if she had a permanent blush.

The day came to an end, and for the first time, Sarunte and Haruna learned what it was to be truly exhausted. Combined, they easily drained the canteen away of most of the water meant to last the entire trip. This was only slightly detrimental to the trip, but in no way would prove too problematic. Sakura had easily travelled to Suna with only a couple of soldier pills before, and Temari had grown up in the sand.

That night, Haruna and Sarunte learned the horrors of bugs. Scorpions to be more precise, and while none even came close to them; Sarunte woke up finding a new found respect for Koru Aburame. Haruna was not much better, and only appeared calm due to ingrained reactions hammered in since she had joined the acadamy to not show her immaturity.

Day two came and went, and finally Sarunte started to complain. Sakura didn't even bother to stop him, and chose to block his voice, as did Temari.

Finally, as day three came into mid day, the genin and jounin were overjoyed to spot the spirals of Sunagakure.

"Let's never do this again." Sarunte said hoarsely, his throat dry from the lack of water.

"Didn't Gai-sensei and Lee try to travel the distance in one day?" Nara asked curiously.

Sakura gave an involuntary chuckle. "Forgot about that. Yeah, they did. Think they succeeded too. Neji and Tenten were quite pissed off about that."

"Well, glad you guys are here jaan." Came a familiar voice. A man dressed completely in black, save for the purple make up covering his face appeared in front of them.

"Kankuro, Gaara, how is he?" Temari asked skipping the pleasantries altogether.

Kankuro gave his sister a painful look. "Not good at all. He got the worst out of all of them. He's alive, but not for long."

Kankuro had an intimidating aura to him, the genin noted, and seemed to be quite tough like his sister. The entire Wind country seemed to be like the sand- gritty and coarse.

As they hurried back into the village, it became clear that everyone had chosen refuge in their own homes.

"No one goes outside anymore jaan." Kankuro explained. "They're all scared shitless. The paranoia is incredibly stupid to watch in action. They seem to think it's contagious, but from what we can tell it's not. It's only the dust that gives it to you."

They were lead to the hospital. Sakura remembered the time she came here to heal Kankuro. That had been back when the Akatsuki was still a threat and Naruto and Kakashi were still alive. That puppet man…what had been his name…Sasori. He had poisoned Kankuro, and she and Chiyo had taken him down. It had seemed all so long ago. It was naturally, Sakura had only been fifteen at the time.

The hospital was in a panic, but they hid it well. It was only from watching the second long emotions their faces betrayed before reverting to stoicness that Sakura picked up on the terror they held. Kankuro took them to the Kazekages room. Three teenagers were already there. Two males and a female. One male had dark brown hair and odd metal clasps on his arms, he wore his headband diagonally across his chest. The other had brilliant green eyes and a turban on his head. He wore his headband on his waist like a belt. The female had black hair put back into two antennae pigtails, with her headband covering her eyes.

"Kankuro-sensei!" Said the male with metal clasps.

Sakura wasted no time to examine the Kazekage. Temari took this moment to breathe a sigh of relief as she studied the three young teens. "This is your genin team Kankuro?"

"Got that right jaan. This yours?"

"No. Sakura's team."

"Damn. I was hoping we could have a competition before the chuunin exams and everything."

"This is serious Kankuro!"

"You think I don't know that Temari? I _know_. I've been living with this for over a week by now. Sakura-san is here, and I'm just trying to lighten the mood here!"

"Sorry Kankuro. He…he just looks so sick. He might actually _die_. Who would become the Kazekage if he dies?"

"At this rate, it might end up being me. Most of the top ninja were taken down by that sickness when they hurried to protect the Kazekage jaan. I only missed it by a fluke. I was on a mission a bit farther south. I didn't find out until the next morning."

"You would make a horrible Kazekage."

"I can agree with that. I'd have to be serious and crap. I don't know how Gaara stands it."

The moment was light, and Temari felt slightly better because of it. The genin's looked at each other awkwardly behind closed doors as Sakura demanded solitude from certain annoying children.

The female smiled wide. "Male sounds cute. What's your name huh?"

"Wait…me?" Sarunte asked in surprise.

"Yeah. You."

"Uchiha Sarunte."

"OooOOooh." She cooed. "An Uchiha. I've heard of _you_."

"Miyaki stop making that noise." The male with the turban winced. "You know it gives me the creeps. I'm Ryoga by the way."

"I'm Keitaro." The male with the metal clasps said. "Who are you two?"

"Haruna." Haruna said in a barely audible voice. "Cataki. Cataki Haruna."

"Nara." Nara said simply. "Nice to meet you."

Keitaro frowned. They seemed _dreadfully_ cocky to be revealing their surnames straight off the bat. Here in Suna it was considered bad manners to use family names, and commonly if people were to give another name, it would be 'so and so of the desert'. But, a different country, a different tradition. Even if it was a bit strange.

Miyaki smirked and walked straight up to Sarunte.

"How do you know where I am if your headband covers your eyes?"

Miyaki giggled. "I'm blind silly."

Sarunte was immediately fascinated by this. He proceeded to ask several questions that involved day to day functions such as walking and not hitting ones head into every doorway.

Nara face palmed at Sarunte's rudeness. "Sarunte, be polite."

"Whadid I do? I was jus' asking a question"

Nara groaned. "You don't need to be so intrusive."

Miyaki giggled again. "OooooOoooOOOooh. Sorry Uchiha. Didn't know you had a girlfriend."

Sarunte looked back at Nara. "OH EW NO! EWW! YECH! YECH YECH YECH!"

Nara turned slightly green. "Uh, no, we're just teammates."

Miyaki nodded. "Uh huh. That's why your heart beats are up."

"Maybe it's because you made that statement, not because they're lying." Ryoga grumbled, he had been subjected to this type of thing before.

Sakura entered the waiting room quietly. "Good news. I figured out what's wrong with the Kazekage."

Temari and Kankuro got up excitedly.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I _can_ heal him."

Kankuro frowned. "What do you mean? What do you need?"

"It's Redwater poison. We need the counteractive. Ever hear of Saunter grass?" Sakura asked

Kankuro nodded. "Yeah, yeah. It can be found north of the desert. In the Earth country."

Sakura nodded. "Yes. I just need that and I should be able to make an antidote. Most likely the assassin used Red water poison because it's common in the mist village, but there are not many antidotes to it."

After consulting the village elders, Kankuro was put in charge of the mission, along with his genin team and Sakura's genin team. Much to Temari's displeasure, she was forced to stay behind due to certain diplomatic issues that should have been resolved a while ago, but weren't. Apparently she had been travelling back and forth without a visa even though she was now a citizen of Konohagakure and just because she was the Kazekage's older sister did not give her diplomatic immunity.

Haruna and Sarunte prepared for the mission with clothing better suited for Sunagakure's atmosphere. Nara did not because she was already well suited for the atmosphere. With Kankuro and his genin team they prepared to head for Iwa to heal the Kazekage.

To Be Continued


	16. Meet the Roadblocks

**So…we'll admit it, we are LAZY people. Very lazy. SINFULLY LAZY. And we are REALLY bad at setting up get together dates. Anywho, muchas gracias to Malix 2, snobunniex3, Rena, Ratt1993, Cathy, and a super special awesome thanks to Marjolein222 for her monster review of the past four chapters or so. And so, with sixteen thousand hits at the moment, we present to you- chapter fifteen baby! WHOOT!**

The mission wasn't supposed to last any longer than four days. Two days to get to the land of earth, two days to get back. If they were lucky enough, they wouldn't have to worry about breaking any treaties and just skirt around the Earth border. There was no need to alert the Tsuchikage or Iwagakure of their plans. That would only cause for much more political problems and delays than needed. It didn't help that it would involve admitting the top-secret information that the Kazekage was nearly dead, and much more importantly, while Konoha and Iwa had reasonably cooled relationships with each other, there were multiple old wounds between Suna and Iwa.

The genin of Konoha were rather thankful that the location of Saunter grass was much farther north. It almost made the two day trip worthwhile just to get out of the dry heat.

They headed out almost immediately with Kankuro, Ryoga, Miyaki, and Keitaro. It quickly became clear the relationship Kankuro held with his genin. While he was much more warmer than Sakura-sensei, he watched over them with an iron fist.

Miyaki was quite perky amongst her male peers. She enjoyed grossing them out several times be recounting several possible ways of dying in horrific and violent ways. With new victims, she quickly made it her goal to make all the Konoha genin look sick at least once. She also had a very annoying verbal tic that quickly got on Haruna and Sarunte's nerves, and even Nara after a while.

Ryoga on the other hand, had all the morbidness of Miyaki, without the happiness. He would constantly shudder at random moments, as if he had just forseen another possibility at doom.

Keitaro however, was much like his sensei. Confident and tough, he seemed to have a smile hidden in anything he said.

And so, Nara and company quickly became acquainted with Kankuro's genin team.

Haruna stared in curiosity at Kankuro. He had a large scroll tied to his back. She looked around at the Suna ninjas. What possible types of jutsus did they specialize in? She knew that puppetry and wind release were there most famous signature jutsus (not to mention the most closely guarded), but it was clear that none of the genin employed such uses. What in the world did the one with brown hair- Keitaro- did with those odd metal clasps on his arms? Miyaki and Ryoga had nothing to them to give away what their fighting style might be.

None of them seemed to be muscularly built, and Miyaki practically resembled a rag doll. Ryoga seemed to be the thinnest out of all of them while Keitaro was the largest, but not by much. Even with these slight differences, it most likely meant that Keitaro would be the 'brawn' of any situation. Miyaki…there was something odd about her, her arms seemed to blow in the wind as if they weren't really attached to her. Haruna would have suspected she was paralyzed or cripple if it wasn't for the fact she could clearly use them whenever they stopped moving. There was also the fact she was blind. Darkly, she wondered if in reality she was hiding some kekkai genkai. There were stories of people who used to steal the byakugan from Hyuuga clan members and cover those eyes in order to preserve its power and to not draw attention to it. Haruna brushed the idea off though, Suna was their _allies_. No way they would go stealing kekkai genkai.

It bothered Haruna, not knowing what they were- what they could do. All her life she knew what her opponent would dish out. The last time this had happened was with Nara, but that had been three on one. If they ever had to fight against these genin, how in the world could she subdue Miyaki? With the headband blocking her eyes, her Zajigan was pretty darn useless against her.

Of course, if they ever did have to go three on three, it would be fairly easy to try and fight with one of the two boys and leave Miyaki to Sarunte or Nara.

Another thought occurred to Haruna. Were they analyzing her just as she was analyzing them? Were they gazing at her from the corner of their eyes, as they were with her other two teammates, trying to figure out what they did and their weaknesses? Did they recognize her heritage as a Cataki clan member, and recognize that she carried the Zajigan? Did they recognize Naras heritage, even from the hood and concealing clothing? Were they aware of the Uchiha and their fire abilities? They had been fools to reveal their last names. Fools!

Stop being so paranoid. Breathe. They were her allies for kami's sake! They weren't going to betray them when their Kazekage was on the line! In fact- Haruna Nara and Sarunte were much more likely to betray them!

"Something wrong Haruna?" Nara asked, snapping Haruna out of her mental prattling.

"I'm fine Nara."

"OooOOooh." Miyaki cooed. "Les YAY." She squealed, not explaining what she meant by that, and no one even bothered to ask. Well, Sarunte asked, but it wasn't like he received an answer.

Nara mentally groaned. This was becoming mentally exhausting. Practically everyone she was travelling with at the moment had given her a reason to knock some sense into them. Sarunte kept spouting off random questions and being his hyper self, Miyaki kept giggling about some secret or another, or pausing to tell them about how awesome it would be if they got attacked by mutated scorpions whose poison caused them to go mad and try to eat each other, Ryoga kept looking around nervously, causing Nara to be painfully paranoid, and Keitaro just kept rolling his eyes as if he were above it all. Now Haruna was staring at the ground idly to the point Nara was almost surprised she could see where she was going, and even worse, she was pretty sure Kankuro-sensei had tuned them out a very long time ago, as evidenced by the fact she couldn't seem to get his attention.

Give her Itachi any day. At least, that, she knew how to handle. She could handle hiding and running away. Dealing with people…just wasn't her forte.

She was right about Kankuro, he had long ago mastered the art of selective hearing. It was better if he tuned them out anyway. Kankuro hated kids. He hated anyone who hadn't turned fifteen really. Of course, he did love his students, but that didn't mean he couldn't be pissed off by their incessant whimpering. More importantly, he had informed them day one that he despised little kids and anyone who acted like a brat. So it wasn't like he tried to hide it or anything. For the most part, his team had turned out pretty good too.

Keitaro had learned to embrace his clan heritage fully and now was the tank of the group. He had also gotten much better about grudge holding, although he still had a bit of a hit list. Ryoga learned to keep his crippling pessimism outside of battle, and to not let it physically affect him. He also had proven to be quite the quickster with his expert chakra control. Then there was Miyaki.

Miyaki.

Oi.

Ve.

She had been the least changed during their time together. She knew how to fight, and she did it well. However, while this was her advantage in battle, it also was her disadvantage socially. Miyaki was not a native to Sunagakure. She had been adopted at age eight, as a refugee from the last remains of the Sound village. She had proven she was a loyal little buggerhead time and time again, and more importantly, with the Sound Village defunct and completely extinct, it wasn't like Miyaki had a village to betray Sunagakure to. Perhaps the real issue had been she had been one of the few surviving members of Otogakure, and more importantly, the only one who wasn't crippled to the point of uselessness. There were other members of the Sound village who had taken up residence in Sunagakure after they had eliminated the last village four years or so ago (After Orochimaru had been gotten rid of, the sound village was ruled by a series of increasingly insane and inhuman ninjas, all trying to do the same thing, only phrasing it differently), but the majority of them could barely walk. Miyaki was blind due to the experiments, and luckily for her, that had been the worst of it. In fact, it had proven to be an advantage.

Yep. His team was a real winner. The pessimist, the grudge holder, and the psychopath. Awesome.

Sakura's team seemed slightly better off, but not by much. He knew enough from his sister to know that the Uchihas were just one paranoia shit storm waiting to happen. The Cataki looked way too young and frail to be a ninja, most likely promoted due to some kekkai genkai, the Uchiha reminded him a bit of a certain blond haired Konoha ninja, while the last one in the hood seemed to be more aloof. Kankuro had almost thought she had been male until he had heard her talk. Not nearly enough testosterone to make her sound male. She also seemed to be the most experienced of the three, although that was a gut reaction alone.

The first day came and went. Kankuro was only slightly less harsh than Sakura. But only slightly. However, it was justifiable, it _was _his brother that was dying after all.

"Alright, we'll rest here for the night jaan." Kankuro said finally as he saw that most of the genin looked like they were going to collapse. Kankuro didn't feel tired at all, but that was just the adrenaline talking. He needed sleep just like they did, he just sometimes forgot that.

The genin were more than happy to comply with the orders. Sarunte collapsed on the ground and promptly started to snore lightly. Nara followed suit, albeit much more gracefully. Keitaro Ryoga and Haruna soon fell asleep as well, with Miyaki being the last to finally fall asleep. Kankuro groaned for a moment, draping the area with chakra strings to warn him of intruders and positioning himself in a place perfect to attack and defend, even if they came across a siege from all sides and with one last lingering thought on his brother, he finally silenced his mind and slept.

**xXx**

"Sweet DAMN. I know HIM. Tha's them…Thadd'll be the Kazekages brother or something."

"Nuh-uhhhhhhhhh. The Kazekages brother is the one with the fan."

"Thad'll be his sister dibshit."

"Oi, mongrels, who cares? The point is, they're crossin' wind territory. Sides, you guys ain't looking at the big picture."

"Whaddya mean Soko?"

"Look at the genin."

"Merph. Whaddabout em Soko?"

"Stop calling me that damn it! My name is not Soko! It's Akano. Akano! How do you get those two mixed up?"

"Sorry…Soko…"

"Jackass. As I was SAYING, look at the genin."

"Holy frogheads! Hyuuga!"

"Yes. And an Uchiha, a Cataki, and see that girl with the pigtails? I'm pretty sure she was one of the Sound refugees."

"Hot damn, we could get some major yen for her!"

"Nyuh, look at that guy, the one with the metal armsss. Ain't that a trait of those cotton candy people things?"

"Cotton candy? That's what you call it?!?!"

"Yep."

"Look, forget it. Whatever they are, whatever they aren't, Sunagakure and Konohagakure will be paying major moola to get them back, unless they want all their clan secrets to be the talk of the black market."

"Brilliant Soko!"

"Yes brilliant indeed Soko!"

"You guys are lucky you're useful you know that right?"

**xXx**

A couple of hours later, the cobbled together team of genin and one jonin woke up oddly well rested for only three hours worth of sleep or so. Some soldier pills later had them up and ready to go.

"Kankuro-sensei are you sure no one if following us? Cause I'm pretty sure those branches were much leafier yesterday." Ryoga said cautiously.

Kankuro sighed. He wanted to say "No, now stop being a moron." But he couldn't. They were being followed after all. Normally he would have called them out and have a nice curb stomp battle. But that wasn't important. They needed that Saunter grass. Worse came to worst, the genin would have to return to Suna on their own while Kankuro enjoyed a blood bath. Get the Saunter grass first, kick lousy second rate ninja ass second.

"Ryoga, shut up before I castrate you." Kankuro muttered irritably. Much too harsh of words to use on him, but it got Ryoga to shut up for the rest of the morning. Unfortunately, Sarunte did not seemed to be intimidated with such threats. In fact, threatening him caused him to talk more as he questioned how would one follow out such methods, wanting to know the in depth procedure.

He would be one hell of an interrogator when he got older. Missing nins all over would spill immediately just to get the baka to stop talking.

It wasn't long until they had reached the border of the Land of the Earth. Kankuro craned his head to Nara. "Nara."

Nara looked up. "Yes?"

"Sakura told me all about what you could do. I need constant surveillance alright?"

"Got it."

A couple of hand signs later, and the Byakugan was activated.

"If anyone comes near us, let me know, but for the most part, we just want to get in and out, nothing messy. Got that juveniles? No brawls jaan." Kankuro said firmly.

His genin nodded reluctantly. Keitaro and Miyaki had been hoping for some epic battle of sorts. Of course, that was only because they hadn't actually been in a battle yet. Softies.

Kankuro took out a crumpled piece of paper. "THIS, is the fricking weed we're looking for."

The Saunter grass seemed to be a dark green reed with odd tufts of dark purple fuzzies on top.

"Hey, can we take some for a souvenir?" Sarunte asked cheerfully.

Kankuro looked at Sarunte, resisting the urge to actually gutting this kid. "This is a mission guano boy. A mission. You want to ask a stupid question like that again?"

"Yeah. See, I have this friend named Gyaro Mitsu, he's kinda a perv, but he's also is really good wit' plants and since it's an antidote an' all, I thought it'd be good to have some back home you know?"

Kankuro gave Sarunte a deranged look. "Wonderful. I'm outsmarted by a brat genin with a big mouth. Wonderful. If you don't mind, I'm going to go see if the rest of the world is still sane. Freaking wonderful jaan."

"Uhm, Kankuro-sensei?" Nara asked hesitantly "Uhm, there are some ninja heading this way."

"Three of em?"

"Yup."

"Yeah, they've been following us since mid day yesterday. Pay no attention to them unless they actually attack us jaan. Our first job is to get the weed."

Ryoga paled. "Wait. Wait. Wait. WHAT. WHAT. We're being followed? We're going to die aren't we? They must want to kill us so we don't cure the Kazekage oh no oh no oh no I can't handle torture I'd cry! Nonononononononoooooo, not good not good NOTGOOD!" He started to hyperventilate.

Kankuro slapped his hand to his forehead and eyed Nara with loathing. "Next time, just tell me in private."

"Sorry." Nara said rubbing her head.

Kankuro takes a deep breath. "Alright maggots, it should be by a pond. Nara jaan, if you would be so kind?"

Nara nodded. She began to scour the surrounding lands. After a couple of minutes, she smiled in triumph. "Found it. Twenty meters north from here. Loaded with Saunter grass."

Everyone grinned relieved, and Kankuro smirked in triumph. "Alright, here is the deal; we get the Saunter grass first and foremost jaan. Then we head back home. If the ninjas attack, I will fight them. You six, will try and make it back to Sunagakure at all costs. If I somehow suffer a lapse of stupidity and fail miserably jaan, I want my team to be the one to stay behind and hold them off. I don't want to strain Konoha relationships by killing off their genin."

Ryoga bit his lip but nodded, while Miyaki and Keitaro were all too happy to agree.

"But I wanna fiiight." Sarunte whined.

"Cool it Uchiha," Kankuro said irritably, "the day three nobodies make it past me, will be a very dark day indeed, and it ain't gonna be today."

"Uhm, they are getting closer" Nara said lightly.

"We should get the Saunter grass now." Haruna said worriedly.

Kankuro nodded. "Let's go."

It was incredibly difficult to make it to the pond, to try and make it seem leisurely yet hurry at the same time. Ryoga had shown that despite his worries, he had learned to not show it. You would have never known he was having a mental breakdown just by looking at him.

They reached the pond. It was rather murky. Nara could see no Iwa ninjas, which Kankuro wasn't too surprised about. You didn't really hit anything valuable or even civilization unless you travelled a bit farther. He wouldn't be too surprised if they had sensed their chakra and were currently tracking them down, but hopefully if Iwa ninjas did show up, they would be far away by that point. Hell, they could even use the three stalker ninjas as an excuse as to why they were in Land of the Earth borders.

Sarunte happily started grabbing the grass and stuffing it into his pack, and Kankuro instructed all of them to take at least a little bit, so that they didn't have to worry if one of them lost the grass.

"Nara, where are exactly are the ninjas jaan?" Kankuro asked. He knew they were close, but he preferred a specific distance.

"Not too far. If we turned around and walked for a couple of meters we would be right in front of them. They can see us clearly from where they are." Nara said quietly. "More importantly, they currently have us surrounded."

"Damn." Kankuro said, along with some more colorful curses. He wasn't much of a strategizer that was Temari's niche. He would rather just fight one against one and a puppet. Of course, he hadn't become a jonin for nothing. He was brilliant enough to formulate a strategy.

"Alright, we'll head out, just as normal. I want to get as far as possible until they attack. Give no indication of knowing they are there. Got that jaan?"

There were slight noddings, and reluctantly, they turned south.

They took maybe as many as five steps.

When suddenly the entire air was filled with smoke.

Kunai came flying and within seconds Kankuro summoned Salamander to create a shield.

The fog started to clear and the three ninjas made their appearance.

There was a male and a female, each with dark blue hair and oriental skin. They featured headbands with crossed out arrows- missing nin from Takigakure, or the Village Hidden in a Waterfall. They each had a gigantic flask of some unknown material on their backs. The other was a male with dark skin and red hair. On his neck rested a crossed out symbol of Kumogakure, or the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

"Surrender now or prepare to die losers!" The female cackled.

"God DAMN you guys are stupid, we've been following you for a day now!" Said the blue haired male.

"Shutit mongrels." The Kumogakure missing nin snarled.

The two missing nin with the blue hair started to make hand symbols. "Dragon torpedo jutsu! Water Style!" They cried in unison. From the flasks, water came out, and took the form of dual dragons, which attacked Kankuro.

They sliced through Kankuro quite easily. Kankuro collapsed.

"KANKURO-SENSEI!" Haruna shrieked in horror, along with Ryoga.

"Too freaking easy" The female said cheerfully. "What are they making the jonin of these days?"

"We need to get going now!" Sarunte hollered.

Miyaki nodded. "Let's go." She said as she made it evident she planned to head to Suna with the rest of them.

"You guys need to stay here!!" Haruna cried out.

Miyaki smirked. "Not quite"

The two ninjas with the blue hair proceeded to repeat the jutsu, this time aiming at Ryoga.

However, in mid air the dragons halted and collapsed.

"Nao! Tanuko! What gives?" The male not controlling the water dragons cried out.

"I would like to introduce you to my old friend." Came a voice from behind, revealing a very condescending Kankuro. "Crow."

The Kankuro from the ground bounded up, revealing an odd humanlike hooded puppet.

"Now, you brats. Leave. I'll take care of these bakas."

Not taking any more chances, the six genin took off.

Kankuro proceeded to summon his four other puppets. "You bastards caught me on a REALLY bad day."

**To Be Continued**


	17. Bad Choices

**Well, we have returned. Thanks to Marjolein222, Malix2, digger(I'd be more inclined to follow your advice if your review had actually included something about the actual story), Rena, Lady Rini, Raiuta and Ratt1993. We are 19 reviews away from one hundred reviews, and two thousand views away from twenty thousand views. Go. Us. This chapter is a tad bit short, so forgive us, but hey! Quality over quantity am I right?**

The adrenaline rush acquired from racing towards Suna faded much more quickly than it should have. It wasn't long until they were out of breath. But the real reason for panic set in when some leftover logic set in.

None of them were entirely sure how to get to Sunagakure.

The use of Nara's byakugan proved to be a great help to try and find where the village was located, but they were two days away from the village hidden in the wind, and no Hyuuga in the world could see THAT far away.

"What…what if Kankuro-sensei is…you know…dead?" Ryoga asked finally.

"Well, we'll most likely have to go on a search party to find his maggot ridden body so that none of the missing nin dissect him. Of course, he's more likely gonna be kept alive and tortured within an inch of his life. You know that cloud ninjas are really skilled with lightning jutsus so they're probably going to fry his entire nervous system so he's all numb and dump him in a fire or-"

"Miyaki, shut the hell up." Keitaro hissed.

"She does have a point you know." Nara pointed out. "She's exaggerating a bit though…"

"Yeah, tha's right, side with Miyaki." Sarunte grumbled.

"Sarunte, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nutin, jus' that you seem to always agree wit' the person tha's wrong an' all."

"But she's not wrong! They wouldn't kill Kankuro-san. He's worth way too much alive."

"Dumb ass." Sarunte muttered. "Tha's not how the world works Nara. You'd have to be a demon host to even have a chance o' living. I have an entire monument devoted to my family name. And plenty more friggin KIA. No one cares to keep you alive if you're dangerous. They kill you when you're dangerous."

Haruna stared at Sarunte for a couple of minutes in sheer horror. Sarunte…Sarunte was actually not dumb.

"He's right." She finally said reluctantly. "My dad's brother was a pretty big name till he got killed by mist ninjas."

Nara shook her head and sighed. That was only how the world worked sometimes. She had a feeling, that if those ninja caught up with them, they'd WISH they were dead.

The wind had started to pick up, and it was getting harder and harder to see. Sand blew in everyone's eyes, and it was left up to Miyaki to lead them, which wasn't exactly foolproof, since Miyaki was just as lost as the rest of them.

"I'm _starving_." Sarunte complained after what had to have been hours.

"We all are. Shut up." Ryoga grumbled.

"You shut up first."

"I'm not saying anything!"

"Ahh! Ahh! We're all going to dieeee" Sarunte mocked. "Woe unto ussssss. We're all gonna ddiiieeeee"

"I don't sound like that!" Ryoga shouted.

"Yeah you do." Miyaki pointed out cheerfully.

"Hey, don't take his side!" Keitaro said. "We're a team here."

"Yeah but, he's cute."

"You're blind!" Ryoga cried out hoarsely.

"Just shut up ALL of you." Haruna said. "You're ALL annoying, and ALL stupid."

"Stay out of this runt!" Sarunte hissed.

"Don't call me a runt!"

"Why not? You call me an idiot all th' time! S'all fair to me!"

"Well it's not!"

"Get off your high horse." Keitaro finally said. "You're what? Eight? Don't act like you know more than us!"

"We shouldn't be fighting guys" Ryoga said, "We'll end up killing each other or something…"

"Oh yeah. THAT'S gonna happen." Miyaki cackled back. "You first claw-boy."

"Don't call me that!"

"I'm almost ten for your information!"

"Oh. Now I'm _terrified_. What are you going to do to me pinky? Throw a tantrum?"

"I'm more powerful than you'll ever be!"

"Yeah, only cause you cheat with your kekkai genkai."

"Stay out of this Sarunte!"

"ENOUGH!" Nara shrieked. "YOU ARE ALL BEING IMMATURE ABOUT THIS. LET'S JUST KEEP GOING OR THE KAZEKAGE IS GOING TO DIE!"

Nara was suitably pissed. Was it that hard to ignore each other? This was a mission! An important one at that. If they failed this, not only would Gaara die, but it would be all their fault.

But she received no agreements or apologies. The heat and lack of food and water had taken their toll. They yelled at her for various reasons, before resuming arguing.

Finally, it happened.

Sarunte right hooked Ryoga in the jaw. Keitaro responded by tackling the Uchiha, and Haruna activated her Zajigan.

It almost seemed laughable that a missing ninja was their biggest threat.

**xXx**

Kankuro, for lack of a better word, was happy. He was able to let loose most of the frustration that had bottled up for the past two days, and nothing kept up ones adrenaline like a fight to the death.

The two Takigakure ninjas were actually quite formidable, especially as a tag team. But of course, it wasn't two on one. It was more of…two against seven. Six puppets, and one puppet master. Kankuro quickly outwitted them.

One glorious puppet play later, and they were poisoned and stabbed successfully, inches away from death. However, they would stay alive for a bit longer. Long enough to be questioned. After all, Akatsuki had long since been defunct, and no one put slashes through their headbands anymore unless they were asking for attention.

But now it was time to take care of the other one, Soko, they called him, who had spent this entire time on the sidelines, watching.

Kankuro cracked his neck. "You next jaan."

The redheaded man tilted his head. "Not today. And for the record, my name is Akano, not Soko. Put that in your bingo book."

Suddenly, Akano disintegrated into lightning and disappeared into the ground.

Lightning clone.

Clone.

Shit.

Fuck.

Not good.

Gathering his puppets together and his two hostages, cursing the entire time at his own stupidity, Kankuro started to head back into the desert, with great intent to find his genin squad.

**xXx**

The genins of Konoha and Suna were still in a mindless brawl. Nara had summoned multiple shadow clones in an attempt to stop the fighting. It hadn't worked. Especially since that was when Miyaki joined the fight for fun. She was relying solely on taijutsu, but she had a certain amount of bloodlust to her that made her quite formidable. It didn't help that she was blind. Haruna's Zajigan had no affect on her.

Ryoga, as it turned out, had retractable metal claws, which explained Miyakis nickname of him. He was also incredibly fast.

Keitaro, if he had a special jutsu, kept it under wraps, and relied solely on his muscle and some generic jutsus and weapons. Which proved to be enough for now.

Eventually, turning away in disgust, Nara withdrew from the fight. This wasn't worth it. She should just let them exhaust themselves, so that they could continue travelling. Then they'd be too tired to argue.

Of course, Miyaki noticed this. "OOooOOooh, looks like SOMEONE is too much of a chick to fight. Scared you'll bleed?"

"Yeah." Nara replied sarcastically. "I hate blood."

Miyaki frowned. "Don't use that tone with me. I'm blind. Not deaf."

"We are in a mission at the moment. We might be being tracked at the moment. We can't afford to fight."

Miyaki smirked. "Lighten up you insensitive prick." A swift uppercut made contact with Nara's jaw. "Sides," She continued, "I don't care whether we fail the mission or not, it's all the same to me."

"How can you say that?!? Gaara is your Kage!"

"Kage shmage. It's just a title. What do YOU care?" She cried out, tackling Nara.

This girl…was _insane_. She was start mad. A raving loony. Whatever term she used…something was clearly not right with this girl. She activated her byakugan. She had more important things to do than engage in a cat fight with a blind psycho.

…

…

…

Oh.

No.

Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! SHIT!

They had been followed. By that kumo missing nin. NO NO NO NO!

She had let her guard down! He wasn't even attacking, or moving, he was just waiting.

_He was waiting until they tired themselves out and picked them off one by one._

Not good. Not good. NOT GOOD.

She had to do something. She had to warn them. But how?!? They weren't going to listen to her! They were all in a frothing rage.

Pressing her knees to her chest, she kicked upwards, knocking Miyaki off of her.

She tackled Miyaki and whispered quietly, "We're being followed. The Kumo ninja. Please, help me. "

Miyaki cackled insanely for a moment. "OOooOOooh, now the les yay is rubbing off on me. Sure, I'll help you."

Nara got off of her. Miyaki smiled. "Leave it to me." She told Nara.

Cracking her neck, she opened her mouth. "_**Hey. Sand for brains. KNOCK IT OFF!**_"

That was what she said, but the noise that came out of her mouth was different. More…painful. High pitched. Nara instinctively covered her ears to avoid the noise.

The effect was instantaneous for Ryoga and Keitaro. Wincing, they immediately stopped fighting, and covered their ears, and Sarunte and Haruna were quick to follow.

"Now." Miyaki said cheerfully, "Listen to girly here."

Nara gulped. "We're being followed."

The effect was instantaneous. Shock and a flinch. Hopefully the Kumo ninja hadn't noticed they knew he was there…

The suna ninja eyed each other. "So…I guess that means we stay behind to fight." Keitaro said sadly.

Nara shook her haid. "No way, you guys are in no condition to fight. I'm the only one who could beat him off."

"But…you might die, and if you die, it'll be our fault and Konoha will stop trusting us and we'll get attacked and there will be a war and we'll all die!" Ryoga pointed out.

"We. Don't. Have. A. Choice."

"Yeah we do!" Sarunte said hoarsely. "I'm stayin' to fight. I'm not letting my teammate go and face a missing nin on her own."

"No you're not Sarunte!"

"Yes I am!"

"I'm staying too." Haruna said, smiling widely. "I am one of the top scorers from the acadamy you know. I have the Zajigan too. I can take care of myself."

"If you had enough chakra to do it!" Nara pointed out. "You should have thought of that before you started fighting each other like rabid animals! Now GO!"

Unfortunately, they could not go. At that moment, Akano picked up on the fact they did indeed know he was there.

Withdrawing his twin katanas, Akano charged. "Chakra wave; Lightning style!"

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Miyaki shrieked, for the first time, actually scared.

"Everyone GO!" Nara yelled. "GO NOW!"

Keitaro raised his arms, The holes on the metal clasps on his arms shot out an odd pink liquid.

Akano sliced through it with his lightning charged katanas. He smirked. "How pathetic."

Keitaro groaned. That WAS pathetic. He had wasted a good amount of his chakra fighting back Haruna's Zajigan. God damn it.

Nara gritted her teeth. She summoned a couple of shadow clones. She had a jutsu that could take care of this man. But she had no idea if she could pull it under such pressure.

Akano charged and struck at Keitaro, leaving a bloody slash across his chest.

"BASTARD!" Ryoga shrieked, appearing right behind him, stabbing him through the waist.

Correction. Stabbed a lightning clone.

Ryoga widened his eyes as another Akano appeared and sent a wave of lightning his way.

Paralyzed with fear, he was thrown out of the way by a quick thinking Haruna.

Akano made some more hand signs. Four lightning clones appeared.

"How the hell does he have so much chakra?" Miyaki shrieked, sensing the amount he used. "That's just inhuman! It rivals a tailed beast!"

Akano slashed at the blind genin, who clasped her wrists together, and spread her fingers far apart. "SLICING SOUND WAVE!"

It was taken full on by Akano, but he didn't seem to be very affected, and he slammed Miyaki into the air, who crashed into the ground several feet away. The sand was every where.

"KATON!" Sarunte roared and breathed out fire. It was dodged and a triple gang up of clones proceeded to punch him simultaneously in rather painful places. The fourth one stabbed him through his thigh.

Sarunte collapsed. He moaned with pain.

"SARUNTE!" Haruna shrieked.

Akano charged at Haruna, who futilely used a clone jutsu.

Her Zajigan was rather weak by this point, but it managed to hinder Akano for a couple of seconds. Long enough for Ryoga to decapitate it. Pity it was only a clone, that proceeded to shock Ryoga rather painfully.

Another Akano began to attack Haruna,

"HARUNA MOVE!" Nara shrieked. Haruna took a step back as Nara charged at Akano.

Raising her arm with the joint help of two other shadow clones, Nara focused her chakra as intensely as she could as she roared the words she had heard her father used so many times previously.

"RASENGAN!"

**To Be Continued**


	18. Dying is for Quitters

**SO…thanks tooooo Lady Rini, Rena, Hellcleaner, Malix2(will try to cut back on nameless dialogue ^_^;), Claamchowder, ANNNDDD Tobilollipop. This is quite the early chapter hm? Well, all we can say is enjoy, cause we most CERTAINLY enjoyed writing this.**

Nara plunged her jutsu into a rather shocked Akano.

Unfortunately, he was once again, a clone.

That left two clones and the original.

That is, until the original Akano made some more handsigns and summoned six more clones.

He stared at Nara in shock.

"That…that was the rasengan!" He said incredulously. "you…you…you're Nara! The demon's spawn!"

Haruna stared at Nara. "How does he know your name?!?"

Damn it. He must have connections to Itachi. "Nothing. It's nothing." Nara said quickly. "Just run!"

Haruna looked around her. Currently, Keitaro and Sarunte were bleeding heavily, Ryoga was badly burnt, and Miyaki was struggling to get up from the impact of the fall.

"I'm staying here Nara. You can't handle this on your own."

"Haruna! Listen to me! The mission HAS to succeed. We MUST get this saunter grass to the Kazekage!"

"Then…then let me do it."

It was Ryoga. "I still have some chakra left. I'm faster than any of you blokes anyway. I don't want to fight."

"Fine. Go! Just…bring back help!" Nara said.

Ryoga nodded, and checking his pack quickly to make sure he still had some of the cure on him, he vanished.

"Nara, there's no telling if he'll come back or not. It will still take at least half a day for him to get anywhere, not to mention we're practically lost."

Nara sighed sadly. "I know."

"…Nara…is Kankuro-sensei…dead?"

"I don't know…this man had to have broken free somehow…"

"…but…that means that no one is coming…"

"Yeah."

Haruna gulped and tugged on her headband. It wasn't fair. She didn't want to die a genin. She still needed to become a chuunin, and a jonin, and beat Reniko in a fight…

"Haruna." Nara said quickly, noting the worried girl's face, "We'll get out of this."

Nara wasn't going to let anyone die in this fight. She would protect them all. Sarunte, Miyaki, Keitaro, Haruna. All of them, even if she suffered for it in the end.

Akano laughed a bit. "What's with all the sentimentality? I'm not going to kill any of you! I have much more money related causes for fighting you. Especially you." He said, pointing to Nara. "I know a certain man who would love to see you in chains."

Nara growled. "Not gonna happen."

"Listen." He said loudly, as he saw out of the corner of his eye, Miyaki getting up and coming closer to the location, looking ready for a round two, as well as Keitaro mending himself with the odd pink gunk that came out of his metal clasps.

"Surrender now, and I won't kill you. I can't guarantee anything if you fight back."

"Oi. Numbnut." Miyaki said evenly, as Keitaro cocked his head towards her in response. "Heal the Uchiha when you're done. I don't know about you softies, but if I'm gonna get captured for money, I'm sure as hell gonna make sure I get some scars on you first."

Haruna nodded. "I second that."

"Thirded." Sarunte sobbed as he grasped his leg which was bleeding heavily.

Keitaro gave a grunt of agreeance.

"Haruna," Nara said worriedly, "You should just stay out of this fight. Your Zajigan is obviously no use against him…"

"I don't care! I'm a shinobi!" Haruna yelled out.

Akano sighed. "Fine then." He twirled his swords around, "By the time I am done with you brats, you will be BEGGING for death's embrace."

Miyaki clasped her wrists together. "Die you ham. Slicing sound wave!"

Sound erupted from her fingertips, but the clones dodged.

"Let's take out the fox girl first." Akano yelled, and he started to spin his katanas around rapidly. "Thunder Disk; Lightning Style!"

Two very large disks of lightning came into contact with Nara. It knocked her back, and left her with a very bad, and very deep gash along her waist. The blood seemed to come out way too easily. Nara felt slightly queasy.

She forced herself to get up. Activating her byakugan she yelled "EAT GENTLE FIST!"

She charged and, dodging the waves of lightning, successfully came into contact. She started to seal off the chakra points. But very quickly, Akano disintegrated into lightning, and shocked Nara.

Blood loss already taking its toll, Nara fell to her knees. This was not good. What was wrong with her? She had successfully evaded Itachi for years now! Of course, she never actually fought with Itachi…

Reaching into her bag, she fumbled for her chakra balls. Any chakra balls. Her hand slightly trembling, she saw that it was a fire chakra ball. She threw it.

One explosion of fire later, while it didn't get rid of any of the clones, certainly served as a good distraction for when Miyaki used her sound slicing jutsu again.

Some lightning later, and one more clone had bit the dust.

Keitaro's wound had been clumsily sealed, and so had Saruntes. Keitaro stumbled over to Nara.

"Here, lemme see your wound." He muttered.

He lifted up Nara's shirt, but paused. There seemed to be no more blood coming out. He raised an eyebrow. "Well, guess you're o.k. then."

Sasuke slowly got up, although he was a bit woozy from the blood.

Miyaki and Haruna had been attempting to tag team against Akano, but it wasn't going well. Haruna severely lacked any physical strength, and Miyaki was better, but not enough to match up against a jonin. However, they managed to work out a system where they would use the Zajigan and Miyaki's echolocation to distract the missing nin, and then Miyaki would use her sound slicing jutsu, and Haruna would use her kunai.

It worked to take down one clone, but after that, Akano focused all of his energy on the two, and it wasn't long until Miyaki and Haruna spent more time dodging lightning than taking down the culprit.

This wasn't working. They needed to take down the _real_ Akano. But, not even Nara's byakugan could do that task. All the chakra had been evenly distributed. They all looked exactly the same.

Crap.

So, they did the only thing they could, attack any and all of them. But it was futile. Akano was only toying with them. Wearing them down till they collapsed. Then he would tie them up and profit.

Never before had any of them felt so…out matched.

Even Nara hadn't felt this way in a long time. Even when she had been running away from Itachi, she had always had faith in her ability to get away, and avoid fighting. But here, she couldn't run away. She had to make sure the others got away. But they were so _stubborn_.

At this rate they were ALL going to be captured. Where was Kankuro-san? If he hadn't come by this point…was he really dead? Kankuro was a jonin, and the brother of the Kazekage, no way he could lose that easily. Of course…there HAD been two other ninjas. Maybe he had been able to take those two down, and had been so weakened that the kumo ninja took him down easily.

She couldn't think about this now! She needed to defend everyone! Somehow…

"Shadow clone!"

Using every amount of chakra she possibly could, she surrounded the entire area with shadow clones. She used her invisibility jutsu next, and then prepared to use gentle fist. Thank goodness for the demon fox, it gave her near unlimited chakra.

Akano saw this, and was quick to act. One jutsu later, and his clones and himself had some sort of lightning armor.

Nara's clones started to drop like flies. But she kept trying, in hopes she could wear the kumo missing nin even a bit.

At one point, one of the clones, or perhaps, the real one, reached into a pack and retrieved some brown pellets. Soldier pills. NO!

He restored his chakra. DAMN IT. This was not good. This was impossible. She could try and use rasengan again, but most likely, another one would deplete way too much of her chakra. But she had to try, since nothing else was working. Not to mention her version of the rasengan was imperfect. Sure, it was powerful enough to take down a clone, but she used far too much chakra for far too little fire power.

Miyaki gave a low whistle. "Ooo. And I thought this rogue ninja had a lot of chakra."

Forming another rasengan, Nara charged at the kumo ninja who had eaten the soldier pills. That had to be the real one. The rasengan made contact with the man.

For a split second, Nara thought this was it. They had won…

But she then felt an odd warmth. Looking down, she saw that a katana was sticking through her stomach. From behind her, a clone had charged and attacked. The missing ninja had a wound where the rasengan had hit, but it was nothing fatal, or even that worrisome.

The katana was withdrawn, and Nara collapsed onto her knees. Shit. She had found the real one, but she wasn't going to be _alive_ much longer.

At least she wouldn't be captured, she thought somewhat dryly.

"NARA!" She heard a voice. It was a combination of Haruna and Saruntes reactions.

"KATON!" She felt a warmth go over her head as Sarunte blew out a massive fire ball.

"You _bastard_." The Uchiha hissed. Holding a kunai in each hand, he gritted his teeth. "_I'll kill you_."

"Chakra wave; Lightning Style!"

"Chakra Wave; Lightning Style!" Sarunte repeated and as the katanas emitted the waves of lightning, Saruntes kunais responded with the exact same move.

It was much more weak, and much less powerful, but it shocked Akano enough for Miyaki to kick him in the jaw.

Akano responded by slashing at Miyaki, and Miyaki fell to the ground with a wound to the shoulder.

Sarunte turned to Nara for a split second. "Nara! Nara! You're alive right?"

Nara paled. Sarunte…

Sarunte…his eyes…

He had the sharingan…

She felt a presence beside her, which she registered to be Keitaro. She felt him lift her up, and they moved as a powerful blast of lightning came their way.

Sarunte started to make hand signs. Suddenly, he disappeared.

Akano craned his neck. "Copy cat _brat_. Fucking show your face!"

Suddenly, he widened his eyes, and looked down, and a large deep gash appeared across his chest. Another one appeared. And another. And another. And another.

Sarunte appeared behind Akano, covered in bruises himself that were not there before, and collapsed.

Akano started to pant heavily. He took a step, but found that it was too much for him, and a couple of seconds later, he was impaled by a furious Haruna.

He fell to the ground. Dead.

Keitaro cursed as his stomach wound opened up again.

Haruna was the only one still up. Panting heavily she rummaged through the dead missing nins pack. She clumsily retrieved a couple of soldier pills. There weren't many, only one each, but it would be enough.

Inserting it into everyones mouth, she noted mournfully that Sarunte's wound had opened up as well, and had practically torn itself up even more.

She looked at Nara next, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Nara actually didn't look nearly as bad as she though. She clearly had a deep wound, but the bleeding had stopped.

Miyaki's wound wasn't serious, but she would need medical attention, and she had taken a lot of trauma as well, back when she had fallen.

Keitaro's wound had opened up again as the pink glue he had used dissolved, but he seemed to be intent on fixing it again, as he now had more chakra in him, but the blood loss soon became too much for him, and just as he managed to seal himself up, his arms fell numbly to his sides.

Haruna was not a medical ninja. She stumbled to Nara, and started to desperately search her bags. She found some chakra balls, but she had no idea what they did.

After a couple of failed tries of them blowing up in her face, she successfully managed to throw them up in the air, and cause a fancy array of lightning, ice, fire, and smoke. She also used one of the ice chakra balls to create some water to fill the canteen once it melted.

Finally, she grabbed a kunai, and started to cut strips of clothing from the mystery ninja, and use it as bandages for Sarunte and Miyaki.

She needed to find shelter or something. The sun had gotten painful, but there was no shelter in sight. If only Nara was awake, she could use her shadow clones. Or anyone for that matter.

She felt flat out exhausted. Her entire body had been singed from the battle. Her right hand hurt when she tried to close it, and her ankles were killing her.

She shouted hoarsely a couple of times. But to no avail. As a last resort, she looked through the missing ninjas equipment. Other than the two katana, he really didn't have that much on him. Some shuriken, a couple of chakra tags. A bingo book.

She stared at the katana carefully. It had been specifically made to conduct chakra. Experimentally, she surged her chakra to the katana. Feebly, it began t o flicker a bit. She put in ever last amount of her chakra through the katana, and a beam of chakra shot up into the sky. The last of the energy leaving her, she promptly collapsed.

**xXx**

Kankuro's search had not been going well. He might be a jonin, but he wasn't a ninja who was meant to search for people. They could be anywhere. His only hope was to sense their chakra. Or Akano's chakra. He kept his eyes out for any lightning jutsus, but to no avail. If Akano had found those brats he would never forgive himself. Shit…

Haruna's last attempt to signal anyone had paid off. Kankuro saw the beam, and after an intense sigh of relief quickly made his way to the area.

He came to a rather bloody sight, but noticed that everyone was feebly breathing. Except…for Akano. He was dead. Kankuro looked at the collapsed genin in amazement. They had actually done it.

He then realized Ryoga was nowhere to be found. A best case scenario was that he had gone ahead to deliver the antidote. A worst case scenario was that he had been completely disintegrated. Another more likely worst case scenario was that he had run away.

The last thing he wanted to do was yell at Ryoga for being a coward.

Summoning his puppets, Kankuro placed his genin and Sakura's genin into salamander, and after examining them to make sure they had nothing in immediate need of attention, he made his way home.

**xXx**

He was a couple of hours away when he ran into some other Suna jonin. Apparently, Ryoga had made his way to Suna, handed over the saunter grass, explained the predicament, and promptly collapsed from exhaustion. It hadn't helped he had gotten lost about twice, while using a lot of chakra to travel as fast as possible.

Kankuro didn't blame him. He was proud of his student. He handed the currently wounded genin over to the medical ninja who had met up with him, and they did some short term healing on everyone. As it turned out, Nara was practically conscious and was already stirring.

She was one fast healer, Kankuro thought. Guess she wouldn't be needing much medical attention. Now it was time to head to his home, lounge around as Gaara and the other ninjas were healed, and more importantly, breathe a sigh of relief that the mission was over.

**To Be Continued****  
**


	19. Recovery by Consumerism

**Thanks to Claamchowder, Malix 2, Rena, Yumetaka Kourui, Midnight Angel Rain, Dragonlord2005 (I agree, sorry 'bout that), Lady Rini, ???, and 11OneDone2Many. With over twenty two thousand views, we humbly beg you to forgive us for this incredibly late chapter. School has been quite horrible to us, as it is to all of us. Whatcha gonna do though? Future is future. So read ahead…IF YOU DARE!**

Haruna stirred idly. She felt incredibly warm and her heavy eyelids refused to open. Not to mention it seemed incredibly bright out. What had happened anyway? The last thing she could remember was…remember was…

Ah….

Uhm….

Something…involving sand….

Oh yeah! They had been on that mission with Kankuro-san to get the Saunte-

Suddenly everything flooded back to her and Haruna sat up panicked. She then proceeded to wince at the movement, as she realized she was completely sore all over. Her right hand was in some sort of cast, but other than that she couldn't find any obvious outward damage except for a couple of nasty bruises that could have come from anything ranging from being hit by that rogue ninja, just flat out falling over, or even that earlier fight with the Suna team.

Speaking of which, they were in the room with her. Room. Hospital Room. Haruna took in her surroundings. Next to her was Sarunte, drooling on his pillow. Across from her were two beds with Keitaro and Miyaki, both rather unresponsive as well.

…Wait….

Where was Nara?

She hadn't…you know…_died_…had she?

Maybe she got better?

Did whoever find them not see her?

Who found them anyway?

They were in Suna right? _Right_? The last thing they needed was to be in earth country. The amount of diplomatic hurt that would cause was too painful to think. At the best, it would cause a lot of unnecessary paperwork. At the worst…there could be another ninja war.

Haruna took a deep breath. She had to calm down. She was panicking. She was only ten after all. Who was she to predict what would happen?

Well…she WAS a genin. Much smarter than her classmates like Reniko and Sarunte. Maybe even smarter than Nara. Well, maybe not smarter than Nara, but she bet that Nara wasn't half as smart as she was when Nara was ten.

Pondering her perceived superiority reminded Haruna of the room's lack of Nara. She became worried again.

Suddenly, a nurse walked into the room. Noticing Haruna was awake, he immediately went to check on her health.

"Where's Nara? My friend? She was with us…I think…" Haruna asked worriedly as the nurse lightly applied pressure to several parts of Haruna's right hand, receiving varying pained reactions from the genin.

"Oh. Her?" The nurse retorted, indicating he wasn't very amused, "She barely made it into the hospital bed before she practically leaped out and declared herself ready to go, as if we didn't know how to do our jobs…does this hurt? No? OK…but don't worry, you'll see her eventually, she shows up…sorry, it seems your wrist is still a bit off, I'll see if I can bring a medic nin in, they are all a bit busy though…she shows up about every day every three hours or so, it's rather infuriating let me tell you…oh that's good at least it's set properly…"

Haruna smiled with relief. "Did we uhh…did the saunter grass work?"

The nurse nodded. "Quite. That's why I couldn't get you a medic nin to heal your hand…hmm, we might need to get that checked…they are all running around trying to bring all the inflicted back to full health, but it's an exhausting job. It requires a lot of precision. Saunter grass is just as poisonous in enough quantities, not to mention we only have a limited amount so we need to use it…does this hurt? A tingling sensation…hmmm…we need to use it wisely."

The nurse finished his assessment, and promised to return with some food.

"Wait, one last question. How long have I been asleep?" Haruna asked.

"About three and a half days. Partially exhaustion, but mostly because we felt it was best to use anesthesia, in order to keep the healing process as painless as possible, especially since our medic nins would be busy."

**xXx**

"Sakura-san, are you done with her? You are needed in the 6th quarters. Patient Ranma has gotten violent again."

Sakura groaned. The past three days had been a complete blur of hurried extractions and mass healing. The genin had brought back more than enough Saunter grass needed, and it had amazedly survived for the most part, even with the hot desert air.

However, there was still the issue that it was a very delicate procedure, and Sakura was simply not able to get to all of them. All of Suna's medic nins had combined their forces to help, but some of the less experienced ones had either messed up in one way or another. It did not help that the Saunter grass created rather nasty mental effects for some people, which while mostly harmless once it went through their system, had caused some of the meeker medics to back off cautiously.

Nara was not making her life easier either. She had been harassing the hospital about five times a day. However, Nara was easily eclipsed by that absolute **brat** Ryoga. Dear Kami. Ryoga. Ryoga. Ryoga. Kankuro looked like an absolute _saint_ for not having murdered him by now.

He didn't even leave the hospital. He just sat in the waiting room. Ever fifteen minutes or so he would start hyperventilating and absolutely demanded to the first poor soul he could find that they lead him to his teammates room _and take their pulse immediately_.

Of course, that was much better than when he had originally been allowed to go into his teammate's hospital room himself. Now he was banned.

Luckily, that problem had been solved. Nara and Ryoga were currently training half way across the village.

Or, to be more accurate, they were playing a game of prisoner. Ryoga was the prisoner, Nara was the prison guard. No easy feat, since Ryoga was quite the speedster.

It would definitely be worth the five months of unlimited ramen to come. Definitely.

For now, she focused on seeing if she could get a rowdy patient to calm down by breaking a vase just by flexing her grip.

**xXx**

Nara felt absolutely horrible.

Well, that was a lie.

To be more precise, she was absolutely overflowing with glee.

While her teammates were slowly dying. Maybe.

Which made her feel guilty.

Which made her feel horrible.

But DAMN if this wasn't fun.

The adrenaline rush had been worth it.

Her heart pounded wildly as she eyed around the corner, keeping an eye out for the panicky genin.

Where are you Ryoga? Come on…I know you're out there…come out and play…

There it was. His chakra.

Promptly, a clone right next to her stabbed her, and Nara disappeared with a poof.

The clones all over were promptly informed of Ryoga's whereabouts.

And within the second, Ryoga was tackled again by an ecstatic Nara. This time, she proceeded to seal off his chakra points, at least temporarily. She might not be a master of Gentle Fist, but she could still pull it off.

Ryoga lay on the ground panting and wheezing. "No fair. _No fair at all_. What if they already died or something?"

Nara chuckled to herself. She was beginning to like Ryoga. He wasn't so bad once you got used to him.

"Here," She said, helping him up, "I'll be nice and let you treat me to some food, in exchange for releasing your chakra points."

Ryoga looked at her skeptically.

"If not you'll just end up dying from exhaustion." Nara added.

Soundly convinced, Ryoga awkwardly fumbled out his pouch and proceeded to limp to the nearest restaurant.

"There better be ramen where we're going." Nara put in.

**xXx**

There had been ramen, and Nara experienced for the first time, ramen with a desert style. Unable to get her favorite type, seafood (for obvious reasons), Nara instead tried the special. It was only afterwards that Ryoga informed her she had been eating lizard.

…not that bad…

Until Ryoga mentioned there were also scorpion tails.

Well…at least now she knew she could eat them next time they were in the desert.

They were walking out, when Kankuro showed up.

"Oi. Ryoga. Ryoga's keeper. Got news for you jaan."

"THEY'RE NOT DEAD ARE THEY KANKURO-SENSEI?"

"_Yes_ Ryoga. _They died_. Gaara killed them jaan."

"…" Ryoga appeared as if he were not sure if that was a joke or a fact.

"Kankuro-sensei…uhh…did Kazekage-sama…uhh…"

"No you retard! What did I tell you about falling for sarcasm?"

"Th…that the next time I did it you drag me by the ears into the desert with my hands tied to my ankles with a gag in my mouth?"

"I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic again." Nara comforted.

Kankuro snorted. "Then you clearly don't know me at all blondy jaan. Being able to escape is a very useful ninja technique."

"But using it as a punishment?" Nara questioned skeptically

"Then I get to have my cake and eat it too jaan."

Ryoga looked positively cowed.

"Kankuro-san, Ryoga and I have been training all day, can't you give him a break? Just for today, so he can see his teammates?"

"What are you talking about? They're dead. I told you. Gaara killed them jaan." Kankuro said with a deadly grim face.

Nara blinked several times completely in shock.

"Nah! Just joshing. The brats are all alive jaan." Kankuro said cheerfully. "Let's go. And Ryoga, I expect to see _you_ tomorrow 4 AM sharp, got that? You'll have three days until the vultures eat your corpse." He said, smiling wickedly.

The three ninja headed for the hospital.

Nara was greeted to an absolutely ecstatic Haruna. She waved happily and immediately asked if Nara was o.k. as she ignored the snickering of Miyaki.

Sarunte gave Nara a crooked grin, but seemed to be more preoccupied with his hospital food than his guests.

Keitaro honorably took the task of comforting all of Ryoga's fears, and Miyaki just stretched back and enjoyed the show, as Kankuro questioned her for how badly they did against the missing nin.

"We would have done absolutely FINE, 'cept we got in a fight and all." Miyaki snerked. "Total foe yay. We didn't even sense him coming."

Kankuro gave a rather evil eye to his team. "You are all showing up tomorrow at 4. We have some exercises to run. Trust me when I say the last thing you want to do is fight on a mission. I should know, my teammate was Gaara, and he wasn't always so calm lemme tell you jaan."

" 'Ey Nara…" Sarunte said, as he chewed thoughtfully. "I waz wonderin'. How'd that guy know your name an' all? Wha'd he call you? Demon Spawn?"

Kankuro fought the urge to snap his head up. Instead he slightly narrowed his eyes and ended his questioning of Miyaki to listen to the conversation between the leaf genin.

"Are you sure you didn't just mishear him?" Nara asked innocently. "I mean, we _were_ in the middle of a fight and everything."

Haruna shook her head. "No, I remember that too. I asked you about it. You said it was nothing remember?"

Nara shook her head. "Not…really…"

Sarunte sighed and as he shoveled some more food down, he winced a bit from moving the wrong muscle, and eyed Nara again. "Why'd you get so lucky an' heal so fast?"

Nara just shrugged. "Oh I don't know. I'm just a fast healer."

Keitaro rolled his eyes. "Well _obviously_" he said, rather annoyed at the redundancy.

"…you're not an alien are you?" Sarunte piped up suddenly.

"Shut up brat." Kankuro muttered. "You don't know what you're saying jaan."

Sarunte pouted. " I do SO know what 'm talkin' 'bout."

Kankuro mumbled incoherently to himself, and stormed out for absolutely no reason, as if he had some sort of axe to grind.

The rest of the genin were let out of the hospital the next day (Kankuro refused to accept this as an excuse. He bumped the time up to 2 am, and promised a much more harder task the next day that would put them all back in the hospital for months), and all of the victims of the sickness were well on their way to recovering as well.

The leaf genin spent their last day in Suna enjoying the sights, the food, and the training opportunity as Sakura and Temari wrapped up some last minute issues. Such as that visa problem, for instance. And stopping Kankuro and Sakura from destroying each other in a violent argument regarding tailed beasts.

As the afternoon dragged on, Sarunte began to stock up on water to be taking with him on their trek to the desert, as Haruna and Nara decided to shop. Just for the heck of it. If they were in a different village, they might as well get some souvenirs. After a while, Sarunte eagerly joined them, proving he enjoyed shopping for shoes ten times more than either of the girls.

As Sarunte was hesitantly trying fried scorpions covered in chocolate, as Haruna was pondering the usefulness of a beaded belt pack, as Nara wondered if a particular spice root would be useful for her chakra balls, a Suna ANBU confronted them.

"Uzumaki Nara?" She asked stiffly.

Nara turned around and cocked an eyebrow suspiciously. "Yeah….? That's me…"

The ANBU bowed. "The Kazekage-sama wishes to speak with you in private."

Nara frowned and furrowed her eyebrows. She was suspicious. Why would the Kazekage want to see her. Actually, the chance to see Gaara would be mind blowingly amazing but…why?

She hesitantly took a step back.

"The Kazekage wan's to see you?!?! NO FAIR!" Sarunte complained as he tried on a bandana. "What makes YOU so special huh?"

Haruna eyed Nara with jealousy. Sarunte was right. It WAS no fair. Why hadn't he asked to see all of them? They had ALL been on that mission! If anything, he should be wanting to see _her_. She was the one who had saved all their asses after all!

The ANBU was not amused by Nara's hesitance. She was a busy person and did not have time for the trivializations of a genin.

"It is best that we leave as soon as possible."

Nara took another step back.

Resisting the urge to make a scene, the ANBU folded her arms instead.

"It's alright Nara." Said a voice from behind the ANBU. "Go."

Nara craned her head to see a rather tired looking Sakura-sensei.

"Oh…ok!" Nara said a bit awkwardly. Her suspicions had been wrong, but not unjustified. The ANBU could have easily been a spy or something of that sort.

Nara followed the ANBU to the Kazekage's office.

The room was quite similar to Tsunade-baachans office. There was a huge window overlooking the village- but this room was maybe just a tad bit browner, and a tad bit cooler. Which made sense, seeing as how hot it was in the desert, a cool temperature would be something in great demand.

The Kazekage was facing the window, so all Nara could see were his robes and hat. The Kazekage raised a hand, and the ANBU promptly bowed and left.

"If you will, Miss Uzumaki, remove your hood, and I shall remove my hat." As he said this, he turned around, and did indeed remove his hat.

Nara removed her hood, and she stared at the legendary Gaara.

His hair was longer than her father had described it, but quite red. His eyes seemed almost dead, but at the same time bright and penetrating. He had quite an attractive solemn face, Nara admitted to herself. If this had been a more casual situation she probably would have gone all starry eyed and bombarded him with questions.

But she couldn't do that here. The situation seemed far too serious.

After a couple of minutes of complete silence, to her surprise, Gaara smiled slightly, and held out his hand.

"Hello Miss Uzumaki. I am Sabaku no Gaara. The Fifth Kazekage. I am most pleased to meet your acquaintance."

"Uhm…no…no!" Nara stuttered. "The pleasure is all mine! I…I've heard so much about you! My…my uh father…he liked talking about you…" She trailed off and smiled nervously.

"Haruno-san has told me Naruto-kun died four years ago."

Nara nodded. "Yeah…four years in a couple of days…."

Gaara barely gave any indication of recognition. "You don't look much like him." He said quietly. "Much more like your mother, but you have your father's drive. His will to protect his people and follow his own code…it is what I admired most about him."

Nara blinked confusedly. "How…how could you see something like that?"

Gaara laughed. It was a quiet laugh, and it sounded odd with his voice, but it was unmistakable for anything else. "When you get to my level of skills, you learn to do that sort of thing."

"Oh." Nara replied, not really knowing what else to say.

"I understand that is not all what you carry from your father." Gaara said stoically.

Nara took a step back in surprise.

"Kankuro-kun told me. He was quite quick in connecting the dots. Sometimes I underestimate his intellectual prowess."

Nara nodded, biting her lip.

"If you ever need help with anything involving situations out of your control, you only need to contact me." Gaara said after a couple moments of silence.

The conversation was over. There had been no vocal cues, but Nara knew it was over. She smiled, thanked Gaara for his kindness and left. It was only when she left the room did she realize how wildly her heart had been beating.

She could only imagine how terrifying he must have been when her father first met him. Nara highly doubted she could have taken him on with that level of intimidation. She still had a long way to go until she was anything like her father. Maybe Gaara-san had been mistaken…

To Be Continued


	20. Idle Returnings

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Wow, it's been a while eh? School can be a pain sometimes. Not much we can do about that. Especially since one of us has a job now too. Well, enjoy!**

"So so so so SO!!! Then, then we woke up in the hospital an' all, an' I guess Haruna sent'ta signal out or something like that ANYWAYS, it was kinda cool, cuz we got to go SHOPPING, and I tried chocolate covered scorpion tails. Nara caught one in th' desert and tried'ta cook it, but she kinda sucked at it. It didn't taste like chocolate AT ALL. But it was OKAY I GUESS."

Sarunte paused his story to shovel bits of meat down his gullet, as he savored the taste, Reniko watched in disgusted amazement at how much meat could fit into Sarunte's mouth. Sarunte should have been an Akimichi, he would of easily been the strongest of them all…

"You're a pig Sar." Reniko muttered.

Sarunte flashed him a smile as he chewed. "Mimf unggryf Nffko-bfka" He said, still chewing, refusing to let anything as trivial as manners and talking get in the way of that food reaching his stomach.

"SO ANYWAY. Speaking of Nara, she wazzn't even in the HOSPITAL! AND SHE WAZZ'TABBED THROUGH TH' STOMACH!"

Reniko furrowed his brow. "That's…weird…"

"MMhmmmmm" Sarunte said as he popped some more food into his mouth.

"Why?" Reniko asked.

"I'unno"

"…what do you mean you don't know?"

"She said she wa' a fast healer sisall"

"…That's a cruddy excuse."

"Oh…yeah…s'kinda is."

"Sarunte no baka eh?"

"Shut up Neko-kun."

"But there _has_ to be a more reasonable explanation. People don't just 'heal' Sarunte." Reniko pointed out, realizing suddenly he had not eaten at all in the half hour they had been in the Korean BBQ. And he was the one paying to boot!

"Well I was more wonderin' 'bout the bounty hunter person." Sarunte said thoughtfully, savoring the last piece of meat on the table, until Reniko suffered another lapse of insanity and ordered another round.

"What about him?" Reniko asked, motioning to the waiter, and gave him some more money for more food.

"Well, see, Nara was'all bad ass, and used thi' cool ball jutsu an' all, and then the guy recognized her an'…." Sarunte trailed off, his eyes glazed over.

"And? And what?" Reniko asked curiously.

"…" Sarunte tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

Reniko took the chopsticks and waved a piece of newly arrived meat in front of him. "Sar-kun…hellooooo….earth to Sarry…."

Sarunte shot up and with a look of determination he shouted "I NEED TO GO!" and bolted out of the door without another word.

Reniko was now all alone. With a serving intended for five people. Well, now he wouldn't have to complain about not getting any food…

**xXx**

"Look, all I'm asking for is three days." Nara said resoundly.

Tsunade frowned. She leaned back in her chair and pondered the request. "What type of Hokage would I be if I let you wander alone under the assumption you would obediently come back as if you were some sort of paladin-esque saint?"

Nara folded her arms. "Because I'm giving you my word?"

Tsunade was not impressed. She raised an eyebrow.

"I don't break my promises Tsunada-baachan. I might lie about who I am, but I _don't_ break my promises, and one of my promises was to honor my parent's death. I'm going to keep that promise, and I will keep my promise to come back to the village. It's my nindo way." Nara said in one long breath.

Tsunade sighed. "Fine. _Fine_. But, escorts. No escorts, no going. Do we have an understanding?"

"NO!" Nara shouted. "I…this is private! I need to do this alone!"

"Either Udon or some other ninja accompanies you, or you will be staying where you are. This is a compromise Nara. You should be grateful you're getting that much."

Nara didn't say anything and stared rather furiously at the ceiling tiles.

"I'll even let you choose who accompanies you. They won't be breathing on your neck the entire time Nara. They will merely make sure you go to your destination, and come back, with nothing in between." Tsunade said, a bit more gently.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Nara asked stubbornly.

"It means that, for one thing, there won't be any issues about bounty hunters. If I read the report correctly, you would have been in quite the hot water if you hadn't been backed up by several other ninja. Your status as a tailed beast is unique Nara. You are the only person in the world who is a container. All the others have been sealed in faraway places that I'm not even authorized to tell you about. You are bit of, for a lack of a better word, a rare one of a kind commodity that most rogue ninjas would, and have, killed for. We are not losing you just because you are having a stubborn teenager phase." Tsunade leaned backwards and folded her arms in presumed victory.

"If the others hadn't been there I would have never run into that bounty hunter in the first place. I would have been in Suna." Nara retorted.

"Well, I can assure you that I will not be assigning genin that can't work amongst themselves to be your escorts Nara." Tsunade said with a smirk.

Nara remained silent, not replying, but not quite agreeing either.

"It's either escort or you can stay right where you are." Tsunade said finally. "If you can't agree to those conditions, then get out of my office, I have paperwork I need to do."

Shizune, who had been listening quietly to the situation, stifled a snort of amusement.

"Oh fine, fine." Nara sighed in exasperated defeat. "I'll ask Konohamaru if he would like to come. He…he…the trip would mean something to him as well."

Tsunade nodded in acceptance. "He's currently on a mission, but he should be back by tonight. If not, I'll have to give you someone else, but there should be no problems."

Nara nodded silently, and left without another word. She needed to pack her bags. Well, bag. She would also need to fish out her purse and buy the proper material, such as incense and the usual deal.

Back inside Tsunade's office, Tsunade called for a chuunin, in order to alert Sakura that one of her genin would be gone for a couple of days. She never felt her age, but dear kami, that Uzumaki girl certainly made her feel close to it.

**xXx**

Haruna had been basking in the glow of her mission ever since she had gotten back. Her family had thrown her a minor celebration in honor of her first 'real' mission. She felt incredibly special at the moment, and she had a right to be. She was the only Cataki of her generation. The youngest Cataki was approximately negative five months old, and after Haruna, the third youngest was about twenty five.

She was special, and she knew it. But by being special, she needed to be able to keep up with her success. She would have to keep an ear open for when the next chuunin exam came around, and train like crazy for it. She would become a chuunin on the first try; there were no questions about it. She didn't 'want' to be a chuunin on her first try, she didn't 'hope' to be a chuunin on her first try, she _needed_ to become a chuunin on her first try. She absolutely must.

She took a walk in the gardens, reminiscing about when Nara had helped her train to control her chakra to be able to walk on water. It seemed like it had happened a million years ago.

Did all missions make you feel like that? Like an entire lifetime passed, and left you feeling flat out old?

She really hoped not, if only because the amount of stress would be way too monumental to handle.

"Haruna-chan!" Her aunt called from inside, "You have a teammate here to see you!"

Nara came over? That seemed odd, Nara had mentioned important business she needed to do with Hokage-sama, but was it already over? Didn't you need to…schedule an appointment…or wait for three hours or something?

Haruna's questions were quickly answered when she turned around to see an enthusiastically waving Sarunte.

What was _he_ doing here?

It was at this moment Haruna felt incredibly…odd. She had prepared to shoot Sarunte a rather nasty glare, after all, she hated Sarunte Uchiha.

But…she didn't feel particularly angry at him at the moment. Odd.

"'Ey! 'Aruna!" Sarunte cried out, jogging towards her. "Have you seen Nara anywhere?"

Haruna nodded. "Yeah, she told me she had to go see Hokage-sama for some reason, why?"

"Cuz I jus' realized sumthin'. Remember 'ow the bounty hunter recognized Nara an' all?"

Haruna nodded. "Yes. Of course. Kind of hard to forget."

"YES EXACTLY! SOOO, I was telling Reni-kun, 'bout how Nara 'ad done that bad ass jutsu, an' I realized THAT WAS WHY TH' BOUNTY HUNTER RECOGNIZED HER!" Sarunte crowed out loud. He paused to let the effect sink in. "SOOOOOooooo. If we find out 'bout that' jutsu, we find out 'bout Nara!"

Haruna blinked in sheer astonishment. "Sarunte…that's…"

Sarunte stomped his foot in frustration. "It makes sense dammit! It hasta be a special jutsu or sumtin like that or th' bounty 'unter wouldda just ignored it!"

"Sarunte. I know."

"SO WHY ARE YOU DOUBTING ME??" Sarunte shouted in exasperation.

"I'm not Sarunte." Haruna said evenly. "I was going to say, that is an extremely brilliant deduction."

"…oh…" Sarunte said sheepishly.

"You sure Reniko didn't just feed you the idea?" Haruna asked quizzically. Not that she thought Reniko had the brains to make the connection either, but he certainly had more brains than Sarunte.

"Pos'tive." Sarunte said firmly. "The question is if that jutsu is forbidden, legendary, or from aliens…"

Haruna face faulted. "And now you lost it. C'mon Sarunte, let's go ask our parents. If mine don't know anything about the jutsu, yours might, and if worse comes to worst, we can ask Sakura sensei in the morning, or Nara if we're feeling up to it, but I don't think she will tell us anything."

"Oh…oh yeah, hadn't thought abou' that." Sarunte muttered. He had forgotten Nara was secretive about this sort of thing. Which…probably should have been obvious considering that was the main problem in the first place.

Sarunte and Haruna went back into the main house to question Haruna's family. Unfortunately, the description of a largeish, bluish, glowyish, hand held orb did not seem familiar to any of Haruna's relatives.

So, they headed off to the Uchiha compound.

The first thing Haruna noticed was that it was substantially larger than the Cataki compound. Not that she was jealous or anything…she just….had noticed.

"Ohkay, let's ask Satoshi first, he's my grandpa, so he's really old and migh' know that sort'a thing." Sarunte said confidently.

Haruna nodded. "Sounds good. Lead the way."

"Right." Sarunte said. He jerked his head to one of the roads. "This way 'Aruna-chan."

…_chan?_

…

…

…

…

It took a couple of seconds for Haruna to realize she probably should be following the Uchiha, and not staring slack jawed in the middle of the street.

If Sarunte had noticed the sudden amicability between the two of them, he didn't mention it. He had used the term 'Aruna-chan' the same way he would have said 'Haruna' or, she supposed 'runt'. Only without the inherent meanness to it.

Were they…friends now?

Well, if anything, it was a fire forged friendship. They had survived a mission together, and they had nearly died together, and they had fought together.

If for lack of a better word, they were indeed 'friends' now. Or at least, teammates.

The question was if there was really any difference.

Satoshi was, as Sarunte had accurately reported, old. His accent was also much more strong and resilient than Sarunte's. Sarunte frequently switched back between a normal Konoha regional accent and a 'northern' accent, but Satoshi did no such thing.

"Eh? Wa'choo mean? 'and 'el' jus'u eh? Bluh-oo? 'ell sar i' th' 'ater cont'nmen' jus'u."

Haruna blinked in confusion. "Uhm…excuse me?"

Sarunte shook his head. "No, wasn't a water jutsu or anythin' like that. Wassa…glowin'y…thing…like an energy beam…on'y swirly…sorta…"

Satoshi pondered this for a moment, smoking his pipe. "Di'ja 'ear th' name ov it? May'e a sor'a…battle cry?"

Sarunte pondered the question for a moment. "Prolly, but there was wayyy too much action goin' on an' all, so I didn't 'ear anythin'."

Haruna furrowed her brow. "Uhmmmm…gan. I think it ended in a 'gan'. I remember thinking it sounded like an eye kekkai genkai, like 'byakugan' or 'zajigan'."

"Washee sayin'? She go's too s'rong o' an' acksen'!"

Sarunte sighed. "She said tha' it prolly ended in 'gan'."

Satoshi nodded thoughfully. He shrugged. "So'ry Sa'unte. No 'dea."

Sarunte frowned and gave a hopeless look at Haruna, and the two left the Uchiha compound.

"How does your grandfather get anything done?"

"He has alotta grandkids tha' gotta listen to wha' he says."

**xXx**

Konohamaru was tired. He had been on a mission to the land of tea, and it had been far more troublesome than one would initially think. He had fallen into the water so many times, he might of gotten pneumonia. He sniffed experimentally. Nothing yet.

He collapsed on his soft bed. Mmmm. It felt good. He could just sleeeep…

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Ugghhh. The door. That damn door. What did he ever do to that door? Nothing. Although he did kick it once, which left a rather ugly scuff mark…

THUD! THUD! THUD!

"Alright! Alright! ALRIGHT! I'm COMING!" Konohamaru shouted.

Probably Udon, telling him about how that shoe mender finally matched his son with someone. Udon had taken a great interest to the wannabe matchmaker. Which meant more pain for Konohamaru and Moegi.

He reluctantly rose from his bed, and fiercely opened the door.

"FOR THE LAST TIME UDON! NOBODY LOVES YO- Oh. It's you." He squinted at his intruder.

Nara.

That girl.

That girl that was related to Naruto.

That _bitch_. How dare she be his daughter! That wasn't fair! Here he was, trying to be a good disciple of the awesomeness that was Naruto Uzumaki, and she comes along being _related _to him!

Konohamaru blinked a bit. He must be tired if he was issuing death threats based on heritage.

"Hi." Nara said, smiling and waving slightly.

"What. Do. You. Want. Oh. Disturber. Of. Sleep?"

Nara turned a bit red and tugged on her hood, before twiddling her fingers together. For a split second, Konohamaru saw her mother in her. Hyuuga Hinamori. Or some name like that. Hanabi was it? No, that was the current head of house…

"I was wondering if you would want to go on a…mission with me?" Nara asked politely.

"…I'm not really the type you want for picking up trash." Konohamaru said sardonically.

"No. I'm going outside of Konoha for a personal mission. I'd normally go by myself, but I can't, so I need an escort. Can you be that escort?"

Konohamaru was somewhat taken aback. "Me?!?"

"Yeah. You." Nara said, in a matter of factly tone.

"…why don't you go ask your buddy Udon eh?"

"I figured it would mean more to you."

Konohamaru was a bit annoyed now. "Oh yeah, the same way it would've meant more to me if you had told me who your dad was!"

Nara stomped her foot. "That's just it! This mission…it's about him. It's about my parents."

"Yeah well…oh." Konohamaru had a clever retort in mind, but he quickly aborted it when he realized Nara might be right. He looked down at the ground. "Yeah, sure. I'll…I'll be your escort. When are we going?"

"Tomorrow. It'll take us about a day to get there, we stay for a day, and then a day to get back."

"Alright. We'll leave tomorrow. But please…let me sleep. I haven't slept for a straight eight hours in about three weeks."

Nara nodded, and hugged him fiercely, nearly tackling him to the ground, before waving him goodbye and taking off without another word.

Konohamaru got up, and headed for the sweet salvation that was sleep. But now he had something on his mind.

He wondered what was going to happen, those three days.

He buried his head into his pillow and was about to drift off, when all of a sudden, he heard the sound of someone taking a rather large foot to his door and forcing it open.

He instinctually grabbed a kunai to defend himself, only to find Udon, standing in front of his bed, nearly bouncing with unrestrained energy.

"YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE SHOE MAKER KONO!"

Konohamaru groaned. Sometimes, it felt like the whole universe did not like him, and wanted him to feel pain.

To Be Continued


	21. Twisting Encounters

**What's this? Another chapter? You bet it is! Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are awesome! We're sorry about the sporadicness of the updates, but we do have updates scheduled, those scheduled updates just happen to be a bit far away from each other. No worries though. We're still alive.**

Reniko was, for lack of a better term, pissed. He was carrying a rather large box of meat home, so that for the next three days he could feast on Korean BBQ breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Curse him and his small stomach.

Maybe if he was lucky, his sister would help him. She disliked mom's cooking. Although getting her to eat it for breakfast was a bit of a stretch.

More importantly, Reniko blew his entire allowance on one night. Sarunte always promised him that he would pay him back eventually. At this rate, Sarunte would need to be his slave in order for all of that debt to be paid off. That wouldn't be that bad, actually. Sarunte, cleaning his room, having to play go with him whenever he wanted, maybe Sarunte could even learn how to cook, and make him meals. Then he would never have to eat his mom's cooking again.

…

Well, that last one was a bit of a stretch. But Sarunte the manservant certainly was a great idea.

As he turned the corner, speak of the devil, Sar-kun.

With Haruna.

Smiling.

Laughing.

Socializing, with that pink haired runty obnoxious brat! That traitor!

How dare he!

Sarunte brightened when he saw Reniko, and waved vigorously, only for Haruna to quickly stop him and give him a glare. Whatever she said to him made Sarunte clearly very sad, as the Uchiha looked frantically back and forth.

Reniko walked straight up to the duo.

"You _left me_ _with all that food!_" Reniko hissed.

"Oh…I did? Wow. I musta been really outta it eh?"

Reniko rolled his eyes. "Shut up you. Do you have any idea how much money I blow on you weekly? I have had to do menial labor, to feed your stomach. And now, you're…cohorting…with _her?!_"

Sarunte paused for a moment, suddenly aware he was friends with Haruna. This shocked him, to say the least.

Haruna narrowed her eyes. "Go away Reniko. No one likes you anyway!"

"Hey! I like Neko-kun!" Sarunte yelled frantically.

"Yeah. Go away Haruna!" Reniko shot back. "No one likes YOU!"

"Hey! I like 'Aruna-chan!"

"You TRAITOR!" Reniko shouted indignantly. "You can't like her! She's…evil!"

"She is?" Sarunte asked bewildered, tilting his head. He looked at Haruna. "You are?"

"NO! Reniko is just a jerk ass."

"…You are?" Sarunte asked Reniko, slowly becoming more and more confused at the turn of events.

"NO!" Reniko cried exasperatedly. "You're just an IDIOT!"

"…I am?"

Haruna took offense. "HEY! Don't talk to Sarunte like that!"

"WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM?!?" Reniko cried out. "YOU. HATE. HIM!"

"NO! I don't!" Haruna shouted back. "I just hate YOU! Without you, Sarunte-kun is actually nice!"

"Teehee. She called me Sarunte-kun. See. We are friends!" Sarunte said cheerfully, maybe not entirely getting the point of the standoff.

Reniko rolled his eyes. "You know what? Forget it. I don't have time for this. I have to wake up for training tomorrow, and if Ketsuki-sensei thinks I'm even an iota of tired, he's going to stick me in his greenhouse. And that is something I do not want. Especially not after last time."

"What happened las' time?" Sarunte asked curiously.

"Let's just say I no longer wonder how Mitsu lost his eye, alright?" Reniko said darkly, before heading home.

Haruna shuddered. She almost felt sorry for Reniko. Almost.

Sarunte suddenly brightened. "HEY! WAIT! RENI-KUN!"

Reniko stopped. "What?"

"We need to ask ya something!" Sarunte said eagerly.

Haruna grabbed Sarunte. "Sarunte! We can't ask him! He doesn't know anything!"

"Yeah but, his dad is s'all smar' and…stuff…" Sarunte replied.

Haruna sighed. "Oh fine…"

**xXx**

The next morning, Haruna and Sarunte met with Sakura sensei for their daily dosage of pain and suffering. Haruna could not help but notice Nara was not present. She was usually the early one, considering how she seemed to have nothing better to do then to not sleep the advised eight hours.

"Sakura-sensei, where's Nara?" Sarunte asked.

"She has personal business. She'll be gone for three days." Sakura said dismissively. "Now, we have some missions to do. Some old lady lost her cat and-"

"Sakura-sensei, what's the personal business?" Haruna asked.

"Personal. That means, you don't get to know." Sakura replied dryly. "Now get a move on before I get mad."

"Do YOU know Sakura-sensei?" Sarunte asked curiously.

"Yes. Now move."

"But if YOU know," Sarunte replied "Why can't WE know?"

Sakura sighed, walked up to the Uchiha, and glared at him. "Do YOU really want to take this path?"

"…" Sarunte contemplated this life or death situation. "Yes." He finally said.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You are so lucky I'm not allowed to kill you. I can however, tie you to a tree, leave you here, have Haruna complete the mission, and untie you tomorrow morning."

Sarunte frowned. He started weighing the pros and cons. A whole day. That would mean a whole day without food. Not to mention mosquitoes. And no food. Well, he could get Reni to give him some, but for some reason Neko-baka was mad at him. What did he do?

Sarunte sighed. "Fine…"

Grumbling, the two genin set off to search for that blasted cat.

It was a normal, low ranked mission, and it sucked dreadfully. They had managed to tackle the cat, and using Haruna's Zajigan to put it to sleep. They had gotten quite good at this. Not a scratch on them, unless you count a minor scrape Sarunte got when he backed into some brambles.

"This is so boringgg…" Sarunte complained. "I wanna go on real missions. I wanna go an' beat the crap oudda missing-nin!"

"Yeah, because that worked so well the last time." Haruna grumbled. Sakura hadn't even followed them. She had just given them the information and left to do other things.

It was at times like this Haruna highly suspected that Sakura did not like them very much.

Or was really interested in training them at all. They did basic exercises, but it was all chakra control, chakra control, chakra control.

What was so great about chakra control? After all, Haruna had GREAT control, and while it was cool for walking up trees and on water, there wasn't much else you could do with it.

Haruna paused. She shifted the sleeping cat to one hand. "Sarunte-kun…do you…hear something?"

Sarunte frowned. He stopped, and cocked his head. "Yeah…yeah I think I do…" He put his hand on his hip, a few millimeters away from his shuriken holster.

Haruna whirled around. "Wait- from over there!"

"No! No! I heard it from over there! I heard it!" Sarunte argued, turning the other way.

Left, right, up, down, every couple of seconds the noise seemed to change places.

Sufficiently freaked out by this, Haruna and Sarunte turned their backs against each other to ensure maximum coverage.

"WHOEVER THE HELL ARE YOU, YOU CAN JUS' SHOW YOURSELF. OR WE'LL BEAT THE CRAP OUDDA YOU!" Sarunte hollered.

Haruna winced, trying to concentrate her hearing, but to no avail, as the sound seemed to surround them. "I…I don't think that's gonna help Sarunte…"

"Boo."

Both shrieking wildly, they fell backwards, to come face to face with a cheekily grinning Ryoga.

"Ryoga!" They cried out.

He chuckled nervously. "Haha. Sorry. This was Keitaro and Miyaki's idea."

The two other Suna ninja hopped down from the trees.

" 'Sup eyegirl and baka?" Keitaro asked casually.

Miyaki grinned widely. "OooOoooh that was me! You heard me! I've gotten good with sound control hmm?"

They didn't look too different, seeing as how they hadn't even been away from Sunagakure that long.

Ryoga blinked a bit. "Hey, where's that other girl? Nara-chan?"

"Oh, she…she's away at the moment." Haruna said vaguely.

"Whaddya guys doin' here anyway?" Sarunte asked excitedly.

Keitaro chuckled, and folded his arms. "Being the students of the brother of the Kazekage has its advantages. In a couple of weeks, Konohagakure is gonna hold the chuunin exams."

The reaction was instantaneous excitement. It was as if Keitaro had said all evil had been vanquished from the world, except that sort of thing would of made them rather sad, because then there would be no point in being a ninja.

"OH THIS IS AWESOME!" Sarunte shrieked in a slightly higher than expected pitched voice. "WE NEED TO TRAIN! AND TELL NA-CHAN! OH KAMI THIS IS SO AMAZING!" The Uchiha started to hyperventilate.

Haruna nodded vigorously in agreement. "yeah…although, Nara isn't here. She's doing that personal business Sakura-sensei was talking about."

"Oh…yeah." Sarunte said, crestfallen. "Maybe she knew 'bout the chuunin exams, and she lef' so she wouldn't hafta participate."

Haruna frowned. "Maybe…" she was slightly skeptical.

"Or MAYBE she's on some S ranked mission WITHOU' US!!" Sarunte continued.

Haruna groaned. "No. Just…no."

Keitaro smirked. "Better find her. Y'know you need to join as a team of three, or you don't go at all. Who knows, maybe you're just not ready for a task of this gravity…"

"Ngrhhhh" Sarunte growled. "You take tha' back you pink gooey scum!"

"Make me baka-boy." Keitaro shot back.

"Oh no not again" Ryoga whined. "We'll get caught and then we'll get deported or something…"

"Oh lighten up, they can't deport us. Torture and interrogate us MAYBE…" Miyaki mused with a menacing smile.

Haruna grabbed Sarunte. "C'mon Sarunte. S'not worth it." She muttered. With Nara gone, someone had to be the level headed one.

"Sarunte and Haruna, sittin' in a tree. C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G on N-A-R-A" Miyaki sung tunelessly.

"N…a…" Sarunte said for a moment. "HEY!"

"Oh relax cutie. Wasn't talking about YOU." Miyaki cackled.

"Oh that is IT! Will you just SHUT UP!" Haruna yelled.

"Then how am I gonna see hmmmm? OoooOoooh. Someone's embarrasseedddddd!"

Haruna lunged at Miyaki. And the fight began.

Or it would have, if Kankuro and Sakura had not stepped in immediately after.

"What. Are you DOING." Sakura hissed at the two. "It was one mission. One. Simple. Mission." She spoke quietly, and that seemed to make her all the more menacing. "Can't you go ANYWHERE without starting a ruckus?!?"

"They started it!" Sarunte pleaded.

"Yeah! Miyaki was…well…she was being mean." Haruna said awkwardly.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "You attacked her…because she was being _mean_ to you?"

"Well…it made sense at the time." Haruna mumbled, slightly ashamed.

"You two, come with me, we're going to train for the next week. Chakra control. If your efforts please me enough, I MIGHT let you enter the chuunin exams. But right now, it doesn't look good." Sakura said, in a slightly more calm voice.

"WHAT?!? NO! PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU!!!" Sarunte yelled, with Haruna echoing his shouts.

"Well then, we better get started training eh?" Sakura said with a smirk.

"…yes…Sakura-sensei." Haruna grumbled. It wasn't fair. Why did THEY get the sensei that was useless? Why did THEY get the sensei that NEVER helped them, and was always a jerk to them? It wasn't fair it wasn't fair itwasn'tfairITWASN'TFAIR! It wasn't fair.

So, Sarunte and Haruna left the scene, and they went to their old training grounds for the dreaded chakra training. Haruna was much better at it than Sarunte, but that was mostly because of the training her and Nara had done early on, when Nara had taught her how to walk on water.

While Sarunte was practicing keeping afloat, Haruna had to learn to do hand stands and several back flips on the water. Good thing she was so tiny and light. But the simultaneous chakra control in her feet and her hands was tiring. What was the point in this? It was not like she was ever going to fight this elaborately on WATER.

This sucked.

"Stop slacking Cataki!" Sakura yelled. "Put some effort into it!"

Haruna grumbled. Stupid sensei. What did she know? Nothing. That was right. Nothing. All she ever did was yell at them. Plus, Sakura was a _medic nin_. The most useless of useless techniques. You couldn't FIGHT with medical jutsus! All you could do was heal people! Which wouldn't be needed, if they just fought in the first place! Lousy Sakura. She didn't even deserve the honorific 'sensei' on her name.

Sarunte glared at Haruna. " 'Aruna –chan. Would you stop being so sour? You're kinda annoying."

"I'M the annoying one?!?" Haruna shouted indignantly. "Sakura is the one that isn't teaching us anything! Nara is the one that gets to avoid all of this."

Sarunte frowned. " 'Aruna-chan, you're acting like you're ten."

"I AM ten!"

"Well, yeah but, don'tcha hate being told ya are?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, ok. Look, 'Ar-chan, I hate ta be the bearer of bad news, but your kinda bein' an ungrateful little bitch." Sarunte said calmly.

Haruna stared at Sarunte, not sure as whether she should hit him, or try and let him explain himself. After a couple moments of silence, Sarunte sighed.

" 'Aruna, Sakura-sensei is our sensei. We gotta respect her an' stuff. We might not like this stuff, but it's gotta mean something. Sakura-sensei was the apprentice to Hokage-sama y'know."

Haruna blinked. "She was?"

"Yeah. Didn'tcha know? My parents were raving happy 'bout it when they found out. Said I was being primped for ANBU material. Not too sure what they meant by that, but I think it's a good thing." Sarunte said nonchalantly, taking a couple of steps in the water, feeling a bit more confident in his control.

Haruna frowned. "But she's so…distant…and…mean…"

"Well, yeah, one teammate went and betrayed Konoha, before coming back forgiven, and then being killed, her sensei was killed, and her other teammate went missing and was never seen 'gain." Sarunte recited dully. "Plus, she's a ninja an' all. She's prolly seen a lotta kooky stuff y'know?"

"Oh. Yeah…I guess…" Haruna frowned. She still didn't like it.

" Jus' promise me 'Aruna-chan that ya won't give her cheek or anythin'?" Sarunte asked.

"Yeah…o.k…I won't." Haruna sighed. "You're one to talk though." She retorted back.

Sarunte shrugged. "I dunno 'bout you, but I wanna get into that chuunin exam. I'm gonna do whatever it takes, and pissin' 'er off an' all ain't gonna help us. At all."

Haruna paused. Sarunte was right. Damn it. She hated it when that happened. "But...what about Nara?! What if she doesn't show up?"

Sarunte frowned and thought for a moment. Then he brightened. "When my cousin Daisuke became a chuunin, his two teammate were still genin, an' they just borrowed another genin from another team or something! If Nara doesn't show up, maybe we can get Reni-kun to join us!"

Haruna stared at Sarunte, somewhat relieved at the idea of Nara not being their only chance to get in, but somewhat horrified by the idea of being in the same team as Reniko.

"Or...or…OR…we could as Koru…or Mitsu." Haruna suggested.

Sarunte frowned. "But I wanna ask Neko-kun."

Sakura looked up. "Quit your talking. Go back to training!" Sakura sat back down, and couldn't help but smile to herself. It had felt good to hear Sarunte defend her, even if Sarunte had to go and blab away her life to do it. Who knew, maybe they would be able to pull themselves together in time, to achieve something truly…remarkable.

To Be Continued


	22. Training Decisions

**What can we say guys? Summer is a tough season.**

"So." Tsunade said conversationally to the jounin in front of her. "How did it go?"

Konohamaru shrugged. "Nothing too eventful. She did exactly what she said she would. It was depressing and I cried like I did when grandpa died."

Tsunade nodded "Any information gleaned?"

Konohamaru rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like I'm going to ask a mourning thirteen something year old about specific details. Besides, from what I saw, it was nothing we didn't already know."

Tsunade nodded again. "Very well. You may go."

Konohamaru bowed and left without another word.

Meanwhile, Nara was greeted by her teammates in a less than friendly manner.

"Where da 'ell were ya Na-chan?" Sarunte cried out, tackling her. "We were worried we wouldn't be able to enter the chuunin exams, and we would need to use a snot nosed brat!"

Haruna was next to Sarunte, folding her arms, and had a slight pout on her face. "You didn't even tell us where you were going. That's hardly fair at all."

Nara kicked Sarunte off of her. "Call me Na-chan again and there will be trouble."

Sarunte shrugged. He had received much worse threats.

Nara frowned. "Wait, the chuunin exams?"

Haruna nodded. "Yeah, they're in exactly two weeks. Sakura says that we can choose whether or not we want to sign up, but Sarunte and my parents say that you need a team of three, so I dunno what she's going on about…"

"So wha' CAN I call you Nara?" Sarunte asked, interrupting with an entirely unrelated question.

"_Anything_, but Na-chan." Nara snapped back. "And it's fine. We'll train together and make an unbeatable team."

Not to mention…if Nara passed the chuunin exams…she would be _free_. She would be away from the village, and it would no longer have to be in danger of attack from Itachi.

But…she would also have to leave Haruna and Sarunte. Not to mention Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi, Sakura-sensei…

She would miss them, to say the least.

But it was for the best. The best for her, the best for them, and the best for Konoha.

But now was not the time to ponder such problems. Now was the time to practice chakra training. If Sakura-sensei had missed her while she was gone those three days, she did not show it. She set Nara straight on balancing slabs of thick rock on her head with chakra.

_Ow…_

"Uhm…Sakura-sensei?" Sarunte said, as he wobbled across the water, walking slowly, and tripping several times.

"Yes, Uchiha?" Sakura asked, not entirely annoyed.

"So, when we're gonna be in the exam's an' all, we needta be in top shape…righ'?"

"Yes. Sarunte."

"So…if we had thi' really cool ability, tha' could help an'all…should we tell ya?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, realizing where this was going.

"Sarunte." She said, quietly. It had been originally planned that he would receive training once he became a chuunin, or had reached a certain level of skill. "If you wish to do so, you must tell your team mates as well."

"Yeah…yeah I know." Sarunte said. Figured his sensei already knew about his you-know-what. "I wanna."

Sakura nodded. "Cataki. Uzumaki. Come over here!"

"Bwah!" Nara cried out, breaking her concentration and falling over from the imbalance.

Haruna dashed from the water, soaked to the bone from having to keep the chakra all over her body.

"Uchiha?" Sakura prompted.

Sarunte shut his eyes, and opened them, revealing red pupils, with a tomoe in one, and a tomoe and a half in the other.

Haruna made a loud squawking noise, and Nara fell silent and paled.

So it wasn't just her imagination. She had thought she had seen the sharingan back in the Sand…

"YOU have a kekkai genkai ability TOO?" Haruna cried out in shock.

"…uhm…yeah?" Sarunte said awkwardly.

"But...you…" Haruna's eye twitched. Sarunte making fun of her for using her Zajigan. Sarunte never giving such a hint of having a kekkai genkai… "You LIAR!" Haruna yelled.

Sarunte frowned. "I'm notta liar 'Aruna-chan!"

"Oh shut up! I hate you!" Haruna cried out.

Sarunte withered a bit. "I only goddem a couplo days before graduation…"

Haruna turned around, a bit hesitant to forgive him. "That doesn't make it ok…"

"I used it in the battle 'gainst that ninja guy when we were in the Sand. That was the only time…"

Haruna looked indignant. "I don't care how much you use it! Why didn't you tell me? We're teammates! And I _thought_ we were friends!"

Nara bit her tongue at that comment. If Haruna got that mad over this, how mad would she be to know that Nara was keeping secrets from her?

Nara attempted to make eye contact with Sarunte, but the red eyes were too unnerving. Even if they were not in mangekyou sharingan form.

It was still the sharingan!

Even…even if…it wasn't like Sarunte was Itachi, after all. Sarunte was thick, but not evil. In no way evil. He was a nice guy, actually.

So why did she still feel uneasy?

She would just have to suck it up. Sarunte was her team mate. She just had to see the positive in this…

But WHAT was there to be positive about?

…

A sparring partner.

A sparring partner with the _sharingan_.

A weaker sharingan, but someone she could practice against, and maybe even learn a few moves…

Even if he was nothing like Itachi, maybe it could be the first stepping stone to defeating him once and for all.

And then…maybe…she could come _back_ to Konoha! Oh that would be wonderful!

Even with that mindset, she still did not feel very comfortable making eye contact with him. It was natural instinct after all. Eye contact with Itachi resulted in an unbreakable genjutsu.

Sure, Sarunte couldn't do that, but no need to destroy a perfectly good instinct.

Haruna had calmed down a bit, and then Sarunte turned his attentions to Nara.

"Hey, Nara-chan, you're good with this, righ' ?"

"Uhm…" Nara looked down, pushing her fingers together, "Sure Sarunte. I'm fine with this completely." She managed to get herself to say, forcing a faked smile at him.

Sarunte took this interaction to heart, and smiled hugely back, and hugged her tightly. "Aw thanks Nara. Knew ya'd understand!"

Nara sighed faintly. Well, at least he was happy.

" Alright," Sakura said crisply "Enough fooling around. We're going to do another couple of hours on chakra training and then, and only then, will we start focusing on individual needs. Got that?"

Haruna rolled her eyes, Nara nodded sadly, and Sarunte groaned, but they did as they were told.

Sakura frowned to herself. They were a good bunch, and they clearly wanted to try joining the chuunin exams, but Sakura had not actually nominated them yet. Back when she was younger, the chuunin exams were usually meant for genin that had a couple years of experience. Then for some strange reason, the younger genin started taking over, and they had to make the whole exam even harder, just to compensate for the ease the younger ones were achieving success. It was a cyclical thing, really. It happened every 50 years or so, according to Tsunade, who was old enough to know that sort of thing.

As for her team, she would need to try and take care of their weaknesses.

Haruna was an absolute mess. She was highly skilled in her Zajigan, which made her the most talented in terms of genjutsu, but physically she was weak, her taijutsu was poor, and her ninjutsu was average at best.

Sarunte was probably the most well rounded. Sort of. He had a habit of being rash, resulting in any training going down the tubes. Just like Naruto…

Nara was extremely above average in certain areas, and below average in others. She was good at taijutsu, a trait she got from her mother, and ninjutsu. Genjutsu she was ok at. The problem was her fighting techniques. She was a hit and run type of person, and she seemed stubborn on remaining that way.

What was she going to do with her team?

She supposed she could drag her good friend Kankuro-kun into this, and they could pit their genin against each other and see which ones lived the longest.

That probably wouldn't fly though. Not only might it result in Kankuro's team coming after her team in the actual exam, she would get flak for 'revealing village secrets' from the more…isolation favoring villagers.

She supposed she could talk to the other genin teacher, Gyaro Ketsuki and see what his plans were. Or maybe even talk to Kiba-kun or Lee-kun, whom had raised genin to the chuunin level. In fact, Lee-kun was even applying for a second team. Guess he REALLY liked teaching…

Kiba-kun had actually taught Ino-chan's son, along with Chouji-kun's son and Shikamaru-kun's daughter. Sakura knew that Haruna had a rivalry going on with Shikamaru's son, maybe it might help her to get a few pointers from his superior.

Lee's team was a possibility as well. He had taught a Yamashiro, a girl that had great talent in summoning crows, as well as two other minor clansmen whose abilities Sakura did not remember. One of them, if Sakura remembered accurately, had followed the tradition of wearing a jumpsuit, and became a Lee clone, just as Lee had become a Gai clone.

She would also have to talk to the Hyuugas about getting a teacher for Nara, so she would be able to practice Taijutsu. While it would be helpful to get Neji to do it (she knew he had applied to be Nara's teacher, before Hanabi had shot him down), any Hyuuga would do.

Haruna was already getting lessons from her family. Maybe she needed to spend these two weeks alone in a forest with Lee. That might strengthen her up a bit. Or kill her. No real loss though…

Sarunte…Sarunte would probably do just fine with the training he was currently getting. He was fairly good at adapting to new training situations.

How she was supposed to train his sharingan was beyond her. She knew how the sharingan worked, thanks to Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-kun, but they were both…well, dead.

Perhaps Ketsuki-sensei would be willing to help her out. He had a high talent when it came to understanding chakras. Even without the sharingan, he probably would be able to teach Sarunte exactly what he needed to know.

In fact, that wasn't such a bad idea. Have Haruna train with Lee-kun, Nara with a Hyuuga, and Sarunte could spend the two weeks with Ketsuki and his team.

Now all she had to do was convince Hanabi.

This was going to be fun.

To Be Continued


	23. Poignant Moments

**So, let's make a deal. You don't kill us for being lazy and lacking in updates, and we'll give you a new chapter!**

Two hours. Two hours Sakura had been waiting patiently for the privilege of conversing with the all honorable and wonderful Hanabi Hyuuga.

Kami, Sakura had half a mind to punch the little brat. She was tiny, soft spoken, and still could kick most missing-nins ass on a bad day. She also had certain…erm…_traits_ that Sakura could not help but envy. Just a little bit.

She had already contacted Lee-kun and Gyaro-san. Lee was eager, as always, and Gyaro was intrigued by the notion of training an Uchiha. Sarunte would learn easily. He was certainly a bright kid. Haruna on the other hand…

Hoo boy. This was either going to be incredibly painful for her, or down right _hilarious_ to watch. Haruna, in some green jump suit, going around Konoha 100 times, in a hand stand…

OK, so Lee was not going to be THAT tough on the girl, but the image still greatly amused Sakura. Perhaps more than it should have. Maybe she was catching a fever. She would have to look into that.

"Haruno-san." Said a young child. Goti Hyuuga – if Sakura remembered correctly, he was due to graduate from the academy this year. A rival for Nara, one day, perhaps. Maybe even a sparring partner in the present. She could certainly use it. Nara needed to learn how to fight people who were rivaling her skills. She was far too used to planning how to fight people she could never actually beat; if the right mind set could be instilled, and then maybe Nara would not rely on her hit-and-run strategy so much.

"Yes?" Sakura answered the twelve year old.

"Hanabi-sama will see you now…uhm…you should go do that." He stuttered over his words.

Hm. Perhaps her first impression was faulty. Or perhaps Goti knew how to respect adults. Or maybe Sakura REALLY needed to check for that fever…

Sakura was accepted into Hanabi's quarters, and the two of them sat down. It was awkward, to say the least. Sakura really was not keen on groveling or paying Hanabi much respect. She was far too stubborn for that sort of thing.

Hanabi said nothing. Sakura said nothing. For about two minutes they just stared at each other, never breaking eye contact. It was almost some sort of challenge, to the two shinobi.

Finally, Sakura bit the bullet. "Nara Uzumaki needs a trainer."

"No." Hanabi said bluntly.

"You don't really think I am going to just walk out with that answer, do you?"

If Hanabi was annoyed, she did not show it. She continued her ever penetrating glare towards Sakura. "I had sincerely hoped you would, but I see now that will not be the case."

Sakura smirked. "I'm not leaving here till Nara gets a teacher. Doesn't need to be Neji, but she needs one just the same."

"No." Hanabi's tone did not even falter.

Sakura took a deep breath. Keep face. Keep face. No need to shannaro this delusional witch back into the first ninja war. She was silent. She needed to think.

"Why not?" Not the best question in the world, but it would get her somewhere.

"We have already permitted her to remain in the village, free from Hyuuga customs, with all of our secrets stored in her eyes. It would be foolish to teach her even more of them." Hanabi replied, in the same blunt tone. Geebs, Sakura would hate to see Hanabi in a bad mood…

"Wouldn't she be less likely to die and give away all your secrets if she knew how to best use her Byakugan?" Sakura shot back.

"That is a fallacious argument." Hanabi replied, and did not bother to elaborate.

Sakura groaned. She stood up, time to channel her battle self. She would need it for this task.

"Listen _you_" Sakura started, "Nara Uzumaki is part of Konohagakure, just as much as you are a part of Konoha. Now, I am not versed in legal wordings and stuff like that, but I CAN tell you I can make your life _a living hell_. Your little title? Biologically, Nara's. Now, you can make a case that it is yours. It probably IS yours, but there is just enough fuzzy area that I could _easily_ have you in court for _months_, if not _years_. It will waste your time, it will waste your money, and you know that if this gets publicized, the Hyuuga's reputation will be in question, at the least. So, I say it again. Nara Uzumaki needs a tutor."

Hanabi was silent. She folded her hands together, and propped her elbows so her hands blocked her mouth's expression. She closed her eyes, as if deep in thought.

"You will have your tutor." She said, slowly.

Sakura could not help but smile widely, and she was only barely able to resist pumping her fist in the air.

"And that tutor, shall be me." Hanabi said in a barely audible tone. In fact, it was so quiet, Sakura almost thought she had been hearing things.

But Hanabi was firm. She repeated her statement. Hanabi then stood up, and left the room without a word.

If it had not been clear the conversation was over, the return of two Hyuuga members to instruct Sakura to leave now was quite clear. Sakura did as the members had instructed her to, and left without another word. She had gotten Nara her tutor. That was what she called a job well done, personally, even if Hanabi volunteering was fishy even at the most optimistic angle.

She would have to keep tabs on Nara's training progress, to make sure Hanabi did not have any tricks up her sleeves.

With Nara's training taken care of, all three ninja-bakas were set to go. If only that meant a break for Sakura. She'd probably be sent on some s-rank mission. And it would suck.

"Sakura-chan!" a voice called in the distance.

Ino.

Ino had gotten far in life. She had never been much of a fighter, so instead she focused her talents elsewhere. She was a tokubetsu jonin, but one Sakura would not particularly want to cross on a good day. She had Ibiki-san's old position. She did not have the scars that Ibiki had, and yet, that made her all the more scarier. She did not deal with physical torture. Why should she, when she could commit far more painful and horrifying acts, all within the confines of one's own mind?

Sakura smiled. "Ino-pig." She replied, with a hint of affection.

"Oh shut it billboard brow. I haven't been able to talk to you in ages." Ino giggled cheerfully. "I just got off duty, and you and I are gonna catch up."

Sakura frowned. She had paperwork to do, ninja-bakas to slap into shape, and a hospital to keep track of. And yet…

"Sure Ino-chan. I'd love to."

"Yayyy!" Ino squealed, grabbing Sakura's hand, and making a dash for one of their favorite cafés. The most cold blooded and horrifying interrogator in Konoha, and she was currently skipping, with a huge grin on her face, making very squealing-esque noises.

Sometimes Sakura wondered if it was not her sanity she should question, but the world around her.

At the café, Ino and Sakura chatted like they were 16 all over again. It was nice that they could do this, usually going out involved bringing along the whole gang – and if you wanted Chouji to be happy, you WOULD go to the Korean BBQ restaurant, no ifs ands or buts about it-, which was always a more hectic, less personal ordeal.

Ino was chatting about the usual things. Her clothes, her work, her love life, when suddenly, she paused. "Sakura-chan. You listening to me?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm listening to you." Sakura replied absent-mindedly, briefly taking a sip of her tea.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Sakuraaaaaa," she whined. "What is WITH you?"

Sakura shrugged. "Just tired and stressed from handling three bratty kids."

"That huh?" Ino frowned, "Y'know, I don't even know why you applied for a genin team. You HATE kids."

"I do not hate kids." Sakura growled back.

"Yeah. Yeah ya do." Ino retorted. "You can't fool me. I KNOW you, billboard-brow, and the only time you can tolerate kids is when they are in a sick-bed, _in a coma_."

Sakura shrugged. "Your point?"

"BAKA!" Ino yelled (earning several looks from the passersby), "You know EXACTLY what my point is so don't even try to play it off like it's nothing!"

Sakura sighed. "Quiet down, Ino. People are staring."

Ino groaned and rolled her eyes upwards. "Yes Sakura. Because clearly, people's reactions to me are the first type of pressing thought that comes to me at times like this. No. Just…just no! You're my best friend and something is clearly wrong with you, and you are going to come first no matter WHAT happens! Shikamaru-kun could barge in right now, tell me my dad's flower shop is on fire, and that the color purple has been eliminated from the planet, and I would still make sure you were OK first!"

Sakura could not help but laugh at that. "Oh don't be so dramatic. All it would take is ONE good sale and you'd be gone."

Ino opened her mouth to reply. "What do you take me for? Stupid? I'd drag you there with me so I could do both!"

Sakura sighed happily and looked at Ino. "All right Ino-pig. I'll tell you what's wrong."

"Good. Cause if you weren't, I'd have half a mind to find out myself." Ino chirped, only half-joking.

Sakura looked down at her cup of tea. "I…I think I'm falling apart."

Ino raised an eyebrow. That was rather quick. Not to mention rather dark.

"I mean, I've never really been able to get over the deaths of my teammates. Not really, anyway. Then I found out about Nara, and I felt just plain old confused. Eventually, I decided that I needed a way to ground myself back into reality. I was focusing too much on work. Living from mission to mission, just waiting for the next adrenaline rush to make me forget what a sorry state I was in. I needed something to care about, y'know?"

"You could always go take up Lee-kun on that offer." Ino said, gently-teasing.

"He's too good for me." Sakura reflected. "I'd only abuse the poor guy. Plus, he's nice and all, but I don't think I could handle him 24/7."

"So…have you…have you ever…y'know…you and Lee…"

"_Ino!_" Sakura cried out from embarrassment. "That has nothing to do with this!"

"Uh-huh. Yeah." Ino assessed, a little private smile on her face. "Sorry, I interrupted you, didn't I? Go on."

Sakura narrowed her eyes, glaring at Ino, but continued just the same. "So anyway, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone. Apply to teach genins, maybe by some miracle actually learn to like the little baka-heads, and also, maybe, get closer to Nara, and just get some closure on Naruto-kun."

Ino said nothing else, but smiled and nodded. The two finished the tea in comforting silence. Once they finished their drinks and paid the bill, Ino grabbed Sakura's hand once again, and dragged her off to some distant location.

"C'mon billboard-brow. You're coming with me."

"Inoo!" Sakura lashed out. "I have WORK!"

"Well, now you don't. We're gonna go and have fun for the rest of the night, and that's all there is to it. You're one of the closest people to the Hokage, and I have my own division! No one is gonna stop us! Now let's GO!"

And so Ino dragged poor Sakura off for a night of some kicking back and relaxing. It would entail much clothes shopping, spa-esque escapades, and flirting with random hot guys just because.

And despite the shallowness of it, and the sheer pointlessness of it all, Sakura had to admit, she had the most fun that night than she had had in a very long time.

The next morning, Sakura met her three students, to inform them of where they would be going for exam-training.

"You mean…ya mean I get ta go wi' RENI-KUN?" Sarunte shrieked with glee, his eyes growing wide, and sparkles emitting from his pores.

"Reniko Nara will probably be training off on his own as well, Sarunte." Sakura pointed out, but Sarunte was not so easily swayed.

Haruna was skeptical, "Who's Rock Lee?"

Time to work her magic. "Rock Lee is a very famous and world-renowned shinobi, Haruna. He's even participated in ANBU missions, and is even superior to some of their operatives, in some ways." Sakura replied.

It worked. Haruna's eyes widened in shock and awe. This Mr. Lee sounded like an INCREDIBLE ninja. She could probably learn all SORTS of things from him!

Nara chuckled to herself. She decided it would be more beneficial to Sakura if she refrained from mentioning some of Lee's _other_ traits as well. Her father and mother both knew Lee quite well, and had quite the opinion of him.

Of course, that chuckling stopped once she heard who would be helping HER prepare for the chuunin exams. Nara was quick to protest.

"Sakura-sensei, you cannot be serious!"

"Regrettable, I know, but you should be honored. Hanabi is quite talented in gentle fist."

"But…" Nara trailed off.

"Yes?"

"I was hoping…uhm…Neji-sama would teach me." Nara quietly muttered, pushing her two forefingers together awkwardly.

"It was either Hanabi-san or no one. You should be thankful you even have a teacher willing to help you, considering your state of events." Sakura replied, not in the mood to debate this point all over again.

Nara raised several more protests, but Sakura refused to give Nara as much as an inch.

Nara finally gave up, and fell silent. She was still not very pleased. Hanabi was Hinata's sister. Her mother had never been mean about Hanabi, or very nice about Hanabi either. She was just sort of…there… in the stories her mother told. Nara knew nothing about Hanabi Hyuuga.

Furthermore, Hanabi Hyuuga WAS head of the Hyuuga clan. Which meant that Hanabi was the one responsible for the problems she had been given ever since she had come to Konoha. Why would Hanabi want to teach HER? It made no sense! Something was up. This was bad.

Nara's thoughts were interrupted, by a yell in the distance.

"HELLOOOOOOO SAKURA-CHANN!"

From the distance, a figure leaped into the air, flipped twice mid-air, before landing with his arms outstretched, and his knees bent. His hair was black, shiny, and in an odd haircut. He was also wearing a green jumpsuit with black stripes, and what looked like dark orange leg warmers on his arms and legs.

"Hello yourself Lee-kun." Sakura smirked at him. Leave it to Lee to make an entrance.

Lee gave her a thumbs up. "I have travelled from across Konohagakure to accept the task of training one of your students, Sakura-chan! In two weeks time, you will have a warrior with a heart of fire, and a youth like you've never known!"

At that point, Sarunte burst out laughing, Nara covered her mouth to stop from giggling, and Haruna stared at her tutor with the utmost of horror.

HE was her tutor? He…he looked like a freak! An ugly, scary, stupid, freak! What was this?

Sakura noticed Haruna's expression. She smiled threateningly. "All right Haruna, you're going to train with Lee-kun now. You will do what he tells you, and above all, you WILL be polite to him, and if I get ONE report of you acting cheeky, you won't see so much as a D rank mission for the rest of your pathetic little life."

Haruna paled. Her face painfully contorted, as if she was wrestling with her desire to obey Sakura, and her desire to run away from Lee and never, ever look at him again.

Her goal to become a chuunin prevailed in the end, and with an emotionally-neutral face, she left the site with Lee.

"Sarunte." Sakura said, once Lee and Haruna were out of sight. "You know where Mitsu lives, correct?"

"Yep!" Sarunte cheerfully answered.

"Good. Head there now. You'll meet Ketsuki-san there."

"YES!" Sarunte crowed. Sarunte waved good bye to Nara and Sakura-sensei, and took off eagerly.

Nara looked around. "So…where is Hanabi?"

"I don't think I ever actually informed her of the time, I was just happy I got someone to teach you gentle fist. We'll go to the Hyuuga grounds now." Sakura replied in a matter-of-fact tone, and the two left for the Hyuuga compound.

Hanabi, as it turned out, had been expecting Nara.

"Thank you Sakura-san. I will require nothing else; you may leave now." Hanabi said, when the two shinobi entered the opening courtyard.

Sakura resisted the urge to strangle the bitch. Think about this rationally. She had to. Hanabi was probably not used to being polite. At least, not in a situation like this.

She would have to be the mature one here. She HATED it when she had to do that. Sakura left, leaving Nara and Hanabi all alone in the walled in yard.

"Hello, Uzumaki Nara." Hanabi spoke slowly. "I expect this will be a very important and educational experience – for the both of us."

Nara looked around. It was strange, she was more trapped than she had ever been in the walled in confines, and yet, with what was to come, with finally being able to complete her unfinished training, and learn the way of the Hyuuga and the gentle fist technique, Nara could not help but feel freer than she ever had been.

To Be Continued


End file.
